Flintshire Council to implement 20mph zones outside All schools.

PLANS to introduce 20mph zones outside every school in Deeside and the wider Flintshire area have been welcomed by Alyn and Deeside AM Carl Sargeant.

Flintshire Council will implement the speed restrictions outside the 50 schools in the county which don’t currently have them within the next two years.

Work on the ambitious project, headed by deputy council leader Bernie Attridge, will begin straight away.

Councillor Bernie Attridge tweeted:

It is expected to cost the local authority about £50,000 and the speed limits will be introduced on a phased basis.

Carl said: “This is fantastic news for Flintshire and I am pleased Labour leaders are making sure the project gets underway swiftly.

“I have previously called for these measures to be introduced to keep youngsters across the county safe as they make their way to and from school.

“This pledge shows Flintshire is leading the way on road safety and is listening to residents’ concerns.”

The Welsh government has provided 20mph zone funding for councils, but does not have the power to change speed limits.

Councils were given £11.5m this year to introduce more zones, with ministers saying that slower traffic would make roads safer and encourage people to walk and cycle.

Children aged eight to 11 and those aged 12 to 15 are the two age groups most likely to be killed or seriously injured as pedestrians.

Since 2002, around 1 in 4 of child pedestrian casualties were pupils on their way to or from school.

In August AXA launched the first Local Road Safety Index,  they independently collated and analysed more than 200,000 pieces of data from the Department for Transport, the data relates specifically to roads that are within the 500 metre radius around British schools.

The data shows that there is a yearly average of around 17 collisions within a 500 metre radius of John Summers campus in Queensferry, the lowest average was Taliesin junior school with 0.6 collisions between 2006 and 2011.

Its worth noting that the figures take into account all incidents regardless of whether they were in school term times or not. 

They also incorporate both child and adult casualties.

The child casualty numbers do not necessarily mean children who belong to that particular school, as they could be residents or children passing through the area.

You can access the data here axainsurancezone.com