Road Safety (Falkirk)

Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at on 18 November 2021.

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Photo of Richard Leonard Richard Leonard Labour

Down the years, Stephen Kerr and I have stood on opposite sides of the barricades. Ours is an unashamedly ideological clash and an honest and sincere political division, which stretches all the way back to the miners’ strike of 1984-85 and beyond. Given that history, there is a certain irony that it should be, of all places, the village of Airth and its community, with its strong associations with the Scottish coalfield, the mineworkers and the National Union of Mineworkers that brings us together on the same side of the argument. I thank Stephen Kerr for raising the issue.

I was in Airth on Monday with Joan Coombes, the local Labour councillor, to meet Robert Smith, the local community council’s secretary. Over the years, Robert Smith has petitioned Falkirk Council, petitioned Transport Scotland and petitioned the Scottish Government with a simple demand on behalf of the villagers of Airth: extend the 20mph zone by a distance of less than 1 mile, make it permanent and keep the community safe.

This week, as we walked alongside the A905 through the village, he said that

“People frequently get the impression that HGVs are exceeding the speed limit because of the close proximity of the vehicles to them, and the draft and slipstream caused. Many pedestrians particularly women with children, prams and pushchairs, have felt as if they were being blown off their feet.”

He is right—that is how it felt to me. I witnessed it this week, which is why the local community has my full support.

In the previous session of Parliament, Mark Ruskell proposed a member’s bill to introduce a statutory 20mph speed limit, which I was happy to sign and support. However, I recall that no Conservative MSP backed it at the time, and the bill fell before it could reach the statute book.

In this session of Parliament, we are told in the SNP-Green agreement that

“all appropriate roads in built up areas will have a safer speed limit of 20 mph by 2025” and that

“A task group will be formed to plan the most effective route for implementation.”

As this is the first time that we have been able to debate the matter in Parliament, perhaps the minister can explain in his closing remarks what exactly that means. Is it that a default position of a 20mph limit, as was proposed in the bill in the previous session of Parliament, will be introduced, pure and simple. Is it the situation as it currently stands, or will it be somewhere in between?

For the avoidance of doubt, the position as it currently stands is set out clearly by Transport Scotland in a letter that was shown to me by Robert Smith on Monday. It says:

“The A905 is a local road and the responsibility of the local road authority, in this case Falkirk Council. Local authorities are responsible for deciding how best to meet their duties on local roads in their area”

That is why I have written to the chief executive of Falkirk Council again this week, expressing my support for an extended 20mph zone through the village of Airth. It is why I am delighted to report that it is my understanding that the proposal will now go before the council early next year.

It is also why, when I spoke to Welsh Senedd member Huw Irranca-Davies just this morning, we discussed the situation there. He confirmed that the Government in Wales is now introducing a 20mph speed limit. Local authorities have the right to reverse that if they have local support, but the burden of proof will be on them, and not the other way around. I think that that is the right position. That is where we need to be for the sake of the people of Airth, of Reddingmuirhead and of communities up and down Scotland. We are democratically elected representatives; we are sent to this Parliament to make people’s lives better, and I think that we are at our best when we show political conviction.