By MICHAEL BLACKLEY SCOTTISH POLITICAL EDITOR
Plans to lower the national speed limit on single carriageway roads have been scrapped by SNP ministers – after they spent more than £500,000 working up the proposal.
The SNP government yesterday confirmed it will not proceed with lowering the current 60 miles per hour national speed limit on single carriageway roads to 50mph.
It followed overwhelming opposition to the idea during a public consultation, with nine out of 10 respondents against the move.
The SNP government was criticised for spending £513,747 of public money working up the ‘senseless idea’.
Liam Kerr, Tory MSP for the North East, said: ‘Now these needless plans have been dropped, the Scottish Government should concentrate more on improving our roads rather than waging a war on motorists.’
In a parliamentary written answer, Transport Secretary Fiona Hyslop confirmed that ministers ‘have decided not to take forward changes in relation to national speed limits on single carriageway’ following the national speed management review public consultation launched in November last year.
But she said work will be undertaken to progress steps to increase speed limits for heavy goods vehicles after the consultation proposed increasing it to 50mph on single carriageway roads and 60mph on dual carriageways.
An analysis of the 19,584 responses to the consultation found some 89 per cent of respondents thought the lower limit would make driver frustration worse and 87 per cent said it would make journey times worse. Only 14 per cent thought it would improve the number of serious or fatal collisions.
Plans to lower the speed limit to 50mph on single carriageway roads have been scrapped - but the review still cost more than £500,000
The vast majority – 77 per cent – thought the current 60mph national speed limit on single carriageway roads was about right, while only 4 per cent thought it was too high and 18 per cent said it was too low.
Figures up to the end of March showed that a total of £513,747 has been spent on the national speed management review since 2021. The consultation document had claimed that a lower national speed limit on single carriageway roads could ‘significantly reduce’ the number of accidents which cause injuries.
Driver groups including the RAC Foundation had called for clear evidence from ministers that any changes to speed limits are ‘necessary and proportionate’.
Scottish Conservative transport spokesman Sue Webber said: ‘The fact that the overwhelming majority of consultation respondents rejected the 50mph limit shows just how out of touch SNP ministers were.’
Ms Hyslop said: ‘The national speed management review provides important evidence on how speed limits can help reduce road deaths and serious injuries, and is helping us work towards our ambitious goal of making Scotland’s roads the safest in the world by 2030.
‘We must never lose sight of the fact that one death on our roads is one too many.’
Scottish Greens MSP Mark Ruskell said the decision not to reduce the speed limit to 50mph was ‘regrettable’ and accused the SNP government of being ‘in reverse’ on road safety.
