Petition backs campaign to reduce speed limit to 20mph on Wells Road in Bath

“Anyone know what the web etiquette is for liking/disliking multiple identical posts? Should we give the same green / red arrows to all of them, or just the first one? I've never come across such an extraordinarily-poor website before, so have no idea.”

“What a stupid idea
The Speed limit for built up areas is 30MPH and has been for years. Why now does somebody think it has to be reduced to 20MPH?
You are just as likely to kill someone at 20 than you are at 30. The Wells Road is a main road, 20 MPH is a ridiculous idea. Vehicles aren't designed to move that slow for long periods, it would require the use of second gear which is not good for the car and can burn fuel.
It's a waste of money as well, to put up flashing signs ect.
And nobody is going to stand there to police all the traffic.
I am sick and tired of these busy bodies coming up for stupid ideas.
Next we will be told we have to wear a safety hat and hi vis jacket when driving.
Come on get real.”

“What a stupid idea

The Speed limit for built up areas is 30MPH and has been for years. Why now does somebody think it has to be reduced to 20MPH?

You are just as likely to kill someone at 20 than you are at 30. The Wells Road is a main road, 20 MPH is a ridiculous idea. Vehicles aren't designed to move that slow for long periods, it would require the use of second gear which is not good for the car and can burn fuel.

It's a waste of money as well, to put up flashing signs ect.

And nobody is going to stand there to police all the traffic.

I am sick and tired of these busy bodies coming up for stupid ideas.

Next we will be told we have to wear a safety hat and hi vis jacket when driving.

Come on get real.”

“What a stupid idea

The Speed limit for built up areas is 30MPH and has been for years. Why now does somebody think it has to be reduced to 20MPH?

You are just as likely to kill someone at 20 than you are at 30. The Wells Road is a main road, 20 MPH is a ridiculous idea. Vehicles aren't designed to move that slow for long periods, it would require the use of second gear which is not good for the car and can burn fuel.

It's a waste of money as well, to put up flashing signs ect.

And nobody is going to stand there to police all the traffic.

I am sick and tired of these busy bodies coming up for stupid ideas.

Next we will be told we have to wear a safety hat and hi vis jacket when driving.

Come on get real.”

“If not careful this issue could get hung up on politics rather than safety. The councillor may have made a mistake and has apologised so we need to let that go. But there could have been an accident on this road and there might be one tomorrow. What we want to do is reduce the risk of one occurring.
There is a right place and a wrong place for a 20mph limit. The councillor has measured the free flow traffic speeds and from the little published it's unlikely a 20mph will be safest.
As far as I can tell the local residents havent been told what makes a safe 20. The councillor can do this if he knows. Experiences from other places are all published.
What is certain is that the people using the road wont want it to be less safe and the local residents wont want to be woken up to a spate of accidents in their road.
With an open debate local road users and local people can help choose what's safest. Which may well be a stay as you are.”

“@Mcupis wrote "There are little boo-boos. And then there are blatant lies told to deceive people."

Classic tactic of the far right and the far left. Any persons who makes any sort of factual mistake while debating/campaigning is a BLATANT LYER and any word that comes out their mouth should be treated with great suspicion.

See the anti Iraq war lobby and the anti climate change conspiracy theorists for further examples.”

“What an extraordinary post Dave.

There are little boo-boos. And then there are blatant lies told to deceive people. In the absence of facts to win an argument do you really advocate making up your own in order to get your own way? This is precisely the sort of thing that has left people feeling angry with and disconnected from politicians of all hues at all levels. It is not acceptable.

Roads remain a vital element of our economy. People need to be be able to drive to work, in all but the largest urban centres public transport is not reliable, affordable or flexible enough to get people from where they are to where they need to go when they need to travel. Many disabled and elderly people are also absolutely reliant on cars. You may well find your transport needs adequately catered for by chugging up and down the Avon at three knots, but unfortunately this is massively removed from the lives of the vast majority.

Roads are the arteries of our nation. Arbitrarily clogging them up guarantees an economic heart attack.

This isn't to say there is no place for 20mph zones. There is. Off the Wells Road for instance - anybody driving at more than 20mph around any of the Poets Corner streets, the residential roads of Odd Down or Oldfield Park, for example, should have their licences removed until they can prove they are capable of driving sensibly. But let's keep a sense of perspective and have sn honest debate eh? Not make up deaths in order to impose unnecessary limits that will do nothing to help the city of Bath.”

“Driving up Wells Road yesterday, at 30 mph (no traffic), I couldn't help thinking that if the council really cared about road safety they'd get rid of the parking up the road to help visibility and maybe extend the pavement a bit which is rather narrow in places.”

“Once more Malcolm and we'll have you in quadrophonic!

Now let's get real here shall we?

Ben you made a mistake, a c0ck-up, not an untruth, just merely "you got it wrong"

Well it happens to us all. In my case I stood as a Tory councillor. Couldn't have made a bigger c0ck-up than that.

Right that's got that out of the way Malcolm Cupis. What on earth are you carping on about this 20mph rot for? I'm hoping they'll make the whole of Bath 20mph. In fact it wouldn't surprise me if they didn't make the whole country 20mph in the not too distant future.

Cast your mind back to the oil crisis in the seventies. In came the 50mph limit. down went the fuel consumption and out went deaths and major accidents on the motorways and trunk roads.

Then of course we had that nasty "clunk click" Jimmy Saville telling us it was illegal not to wear seat belts. Every motorist in the country vowing never to wear one. The AA and RAC telling us they would fight against their legal requirement.

There you have it. It's all about perception. We'll all get used to 20mph in time. And I for one will be grateful for the slower vehicles so that I'll be able to make notes of those idiots driving while using a mobile phone.

So keep making those little boo boo's Cllr Ben. They generate debate and that makes the world go round. Albeit at only 20mph.”

“Why would a Councillor make such a wildly inaccurate statement on a matter that he was publicly throwing his weight behind?

However you dress this up, Cllr Stevens, you are either unbelievably badly informed or you are deliberately attempting to deceive people.

Let's look back at your quote in this article.

Mr Stevens said: "We need to work to ensure that speeds on the Wells Road are reduced, especially as it is close to two large schools.

"The council received a large petition from residents along Wells Road to reduce the speed along here to 20mph, which will be reviewed as part of the 20mph roll-out.

We have established that the two schools are well away from the road, and you are clearly aware of this. I'm sure even you can't claim to be confused about it. Deliberate misrepresentation of the facts.

"The Council received a large petition". But you are apparently unable to say how large this petition is, how it was gathered, who it was gathered by and who declined to sign it. So it could quite conceivably be a "large petition" of half a dozen local Lib Dem activists.

In the first comment you made on this thread you said "far from there being no accident record, there have been pedestrian fatalities along this stretch in recent times."

You now seem able to only find evidence of one fatality. Would you confirm that this fatality occurred further up the road and was a person in a car that was being driven illegally? Not a pedestrian and not in the area that you claim needs a 20mph limit for safety reasons. So, once again we see that you are making public statements to support your ideology that are completely at odds with the truth. Is this again down to your poor briefing and knowledge or a deliberate attempt to deceive local people?

"While this is a main road"...

Over the last few weeks, as recently as last week, the Lib Dem Council has been stating unequivocably that 20mph limits would not be imposed on main roads. Can you now confirm whether this is a deliberate attempt to deceive all people of BANES made by your council or whether, once again, this entire story is down to you and Cllr Gilchrist being "confused"?

"The residents are clear they want it, and we should listen to their views."

Do the residents want it? How do you know? You seem unaware of the number of residents who have apparently signed this "big petition" or what dissenting opinions there may be. Or is it simply the case that, once again, you are happy to overlook any weight of dissenting opinion that doesn't coincide with what you want to foist upon the roads of BANES?

Despite not being able to provide this basic information you still feel assured enough to make the point again in your last contribution.

"I have a duty to represent the residents of Widcombe Ward, the residents here have made it clear they wish to have a 20mph scheme, so I am supporting them. If the residents in "Odd Down, Peasedown, Radstock et-al" wish to organise an opposing petition, they should go ahead. The Lib Dem administration have listened to petitions from various groups of people, and have been influenced by those petitions whether they held our "political dogma" or not."

Actually, what you are clearly saying is that you have no idea what the residents want or need and are completely unconcerned with anything other than forcing your ideology on the the roads of Bath, regardless of what effect this will have on the people who live, work and visit the city.

It couldn't be any clearer at all. You do not exist to serve local people, you exist to impose your authoritarian will on them, all funded by the ever increasing taxes that you extract from them. An absolute, total disgrace.”