20mph will be seen as right says quitting minister

Welsh transport minister Lee Waters says he feels ‘battered’ by the job. He will leave when either Vaughan Gething or Jeremy Miles is announced as Welsh Labour leader next Sunday. He said bringing in 20mph was never going to be perfect but it will be seen as “the right thing to do. The 20mph limit was brought in last September as the default for built-up areas on restricted roads.

It is defined as those with lampposts placed not more than 200 yards (about 180m) apart. Llanelli Member of the Senedd said he had “used up all my political capital. Ministers said it would reduce deaths and noise and encourage people to walk or cycle. But it has been highly controversial, and led to the largest petition in opposition in the history of the Welsh Parliament.

Asked if he would take another ministerial job, he said: “It depends, to be honest. I’ve been doing this for five years now and I feel pretty battered by it. It is an exhausting role” Mr Waters said people in politics spent too much time worrying about how they would get their next mandate. He said he wanted to change the wiring of the transport system in areas such as roads, buses, trains, and taxis.

Mr Waters said nobody wanted to talk about how to achieve big changes and climate change targets. Welsh government announced it would hold a review of how the 20 mph limit works. It has said that the review will look at how the new default 20mph speed limit has been implemented, but not the policy itself. Mr Waters was asked about recent comments by First Minister Mark Drakeford that even after the change, England has a higher percentage of 20mph roads than Wales.

He said that, with the support of other ministers, he had achieved some pretty fundamental reforms. Mr Waters says 97% of people for the second month running are complying with the speed limit. He says he is confident that in time this will be seen to have been to be the right thing to do, but it was never going to be popular in the short term. Mr Waters said the Welsh government had been consistent in saying the evidence says this, we want to make decisions for the long term.

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