News / Town centre will get 20mph speed limit
THE ESPLANADE road running through Lerwick town centre is to be turned into a 20mph zone in an effort to reduce the area’s accident rate and make it more pedestrian friendly.
Members of Shetland Islands Council’s environment and transport committee backed the plans at a meeting in the Shetland Museum on Tuesday morning.
Traffic calming and other improvements will be made along the Esplanade and Commercial Road between Annsbrae and North Ness as the local authority strives to make the town centre “a more pedestrian demand led environment”.
Councillors also approved officials’ plans to consult on extending and amending the pedestrianisation of Commercial Street – Lerwick’s historic shopping district – and the short-stay parking zone in the town centre.
While officials have delegated authority to consult on such matters, because of the “significant alterations to traffic control in the town centre… and the likelihood of these attracting a range of public comments” members were given the opportunity to ratify the move.
A report from SIC traffic and road safety engineer Colin Gair said the total cost of the changes was estimated at £234,000. National transport body SUSTRANS will stump up £168,000, a Scottish Government grant will cover £25,000 and the remaining £41,000 will come from within the council’s existing budget.
Gair noted there were “a few objections” to the 20mph zone but most of those related to associated traffic calming and “the fear that ‘road humps’ will deter shoppers”, as opposed to the speed limit.
When the committee previously discussed the issue back in January 2014, Gair had told members that the local authority had a statutory duty to look at an accident rate of two per year. He described that as “statistically significant” given the size of the population.
He said there appeared to be “significant support” for extending the pedestrianisation of Commercial Street, including from some businesses located in the area.
However there were also “a notable number of people” opposed to the idea including some businesses which fear a “reduction in footfall”.
No committee members opposed the 20mph zone, but council leader Gary Robinson’s amendment suggesting that the consultation on pedestrianisation be abandoned was defeated by five votes to three.
Robinson said he had representations “suggesting there isn’t a huge amount of support for that from anybody, be it businesses or potential shoppers on that part of the street”, and “frankly I think we are wasting our time with a consultation process”.
He was backed by council convener Malcolm Bell, but committee vice-chairman Steven Coutts said the representations he had received were “completely the other way”. He felt that particularly people with young families were eager to see further pedestrianisation.
South Mainland member George Smith said Gair’s report was “very comprehensive”, but questioned why action hadn’t been taken in rural areas.
He referred to parts of his own patch including Quarff, where there are a dozen turn-offs on a stretch of road where some believe there is a case for the speed limit to be reduced to 50mph, and Sandwick where there are a “multitude” of speed limits, often on the same stretch of road.
Dave Coupe of the roads department said that such matters were constrained by national guidance and took factors such as accident statistics, the number of junctions and volumes of traffic into account. Quarff, for example, had been reviewed two years ago and did not meet the requirements for a speed limit reduction.
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