We are asking our supporters, and all who are interested in road safety in Brent, to encourage our councillors, in the run-up to the local elections in the spring, to adopt a more concerted approach to getting lower speeds on our roads. We believe 20mph should be the default speed limit everywhere in Brent, with exceptions only for a few of the biggest roads. This would bring Brent into line with neighbouring Camden, which has been entirely 20mph for some years. We would like supporters to email their councillors with the suggested letter below, or some personalised variant of it.

You can find out the addresses of your councillors here.

Thanks for your help.

Dear Councillor XX,

We are fast approaching the local elections in May 2018 and I wanted to raise the issue of 20mph speed limits in Brent. Almost all of the Inner London boroughs have now introduced 20mph limits on the roads that they manage. A number of Outer London boroughs such as Hounslow, Ealing, Haringey and Croydon have also brought in 20mph limits on many of their roads. Bringing in 20mph limits does not of course solve all the road safety problems in a borough on its own but they work to reduce road casualties as well as encouraging more people to walk and cycle. 20mph limits fit well with the draft Mayor’s Transport Strategy and its proposals for Healthy Streets and Liveable Neighbourhoods where more people will want to walk and cycle and use public transport in people friendly streets. Obviously reducing the speeds of vehicles is vital too as part of Vision Zero where the Mayor aims for no one to be killed or seriously injured on London’s roads by 2041.

Up until now Brent has very much taken a piecemeal approach to lower speed limits often introducing 20mph only on a few streets in a neighbourhood and omitting them on high streets and town centre roads where the vast majority of road casualties actually happen.

I would ask that Brent agrees to take a bolder approach to lower speeds and makes 20mph the general speed limit for the borough, with exceptions for only a few large roads (most obviously for the North Circular). This will make speed limits across the borough far more coherent for drivers, cyclists and pedestrians alike. It will save council time and money by avoiding having many small consultations and schemes on very local 20mph limits as we have seen up until now.  It will reduce the numbers of road casualties and help all of us as residents of the borough to make the healthy choice to walk and cycle as we will feel and be safer when we are out and about on the borough’s roads.

I look forward to discussing this further with you and hope that you will put this idea forward as policy for the forthcoming elections.

Thanks & best wishes – X