Handover of 20's Plenty letters - 19th November 2012

Road Safety Week ran from 19th to 25th November and the theme this year was 'Slower speeds = happy people'. Brake, the national road safety charity, is raising awareness of the importance of making it safer for people to walk and cycle in order to make our communities happier, safer, greener places.

Other cities that have introduced area-wide 20 mph speed limits have seen a drop in accidents and an increase in cycling and walking. In Bristol, the number of pedestrians increased between 10 and 36% and the number of cyclists between 4 and 37% (depending on whether or not you correct for rainy days). If our roads were safer, we would be happier and healthier. 20 mph speed limits improve road safety and give people the confidence to walk and cycle. The number of people killed and seriously injured on Leicester's roads went up last year - we have to change this if we want people to make healthier, greener transport choices.

Leicester Friends of the Earth chose this week to hand over the letters that people had been signing to their councillors asking for 20mph speed limits on residential streets. We have been talking to people about the campaign throughout the year and over 150 have signed letters to their councillors. On Monday 19th November at 4.30pm, members of Leicester Friends of the Earth met Rory Palmer, the Deputy Mayor, outside New Walk Centre to hand over these letters. Rory Palmer explained that he is sympathetic to the campaign and that the City Council is beginning to roll out 20 mph speed limits but that they don't have the money to cover the whole of Leicester at once. He added that, in the areas where they have run consultations about lowering the speed limit, there has been overwheming public support. We hope these letters will demonstrate the level of support for lower speed limits across the city, so that the Council continues until all our residential streets are safer.

This event was reported in the Leicester Mercury.