Residents across East Sussex are fed up with living in fear of speeding vehicles! We want to feel safe in our own communities, whether we are outside our homes, walking and cycling in our neighbourhoods, or crossing the street.

There have been so many petitions and requests for lower speed limits - why do they get ignored?

Because East Sussex County Council have a FAILED approach. Their Alice in Wonderland speed limit policy takes no notice of residents’ wishes, of national safety guidance and refuses to reduce speed limits to anything below the existing road speed!

We are calling on East Sussex County Council to take a NEW approach that will:

1. Make 20mph the default for residential areas - #20splenty

2. Reduce speed limits where there are potential deaths and injuries and not wait for people to die before taking action; follow the government guidance on safe speed limits

3. Include residents’ views!

   
   

   The Small Print

East Sussex County Council policy makes a nonsense of asking for a lower speed limit as it states that new speed limits can be set only if the average speeds on the road are already close to the speed being requested.  If speeds are above that level, the road can in theory be ‘re-engineered’ to reduce the speeds to the level needed. However funding will only be made available to re-engineer any road if it meets a threshold for KSI or ‘killed and seriously injured’ statistics relating to that road. Other factors e.g. accidents which don’t qualify as ‘KSI’ no matter how numerous and how clearly a sign of serious ‘accidents waiting to happen’ are completely ignored. As is the impact of speed on residents as opposed to those passing through an area.

Whilst the policy also states that ‘reference should always be made to the latest national guidance’ this is simply not true. For example a 2018 petition from a Green Party activist for A259 speeds from 60mph to 40mph the Bishopstone to Newhaven area was refused because of existing road speeds. The road has many bends and junctions and frequent accidents. The petition was refused as only the existing road speed was taken into account, even though clearly government safety guidance at para 127 of https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/setting-local-speed-limits/setting-local-speed-limits states that a 40mph speed “Should be considered where there are many bends, junctions or accesses, substantial development, a strong environmental or landscape reason, or where there are considerable numbers of vulnerable road users”