Speed fines on fast road spike after 20mph but 'other factors' say Go Safe (original) (raw)

Speeding fines on faster roads have spiked this summer compared to last year but road safety chiefs don't attribute it to the new 20mph. The 20mph default limit came in last September in Wales.

Enforcement started gradually but has stepped up since the spring with increasing numbers caught speeding in 20mph zones. North Wales Live submitted a Freedom of Information request to look into how offences had changed across all roads in North Wales - comparing June, July and August this year with the same months in 2023.

As may be expected when comparing the 20mph and 30mph roads to last year there has been an increase in offences - with 11,366 in 2023 and 14,745 this summer, a rise of almost 30%. With the lower limit for drivers to adapt to this is perhaps not surprising.

But there has also been a surge in offences on faster roads this summer. For example there were 1,158 notices of prosecution last summer on 50mph roads but 5,970 over the same months in 2024 - a whopping 415% increase.

When it comes to 60mph and 70mph roads there were 2,088 prosecution notices last summer and 3,773 this year, an 80% rise. The total number of prosecutions sent out was 15,591 over the three months last summer, compared with 25,696 in 2024. This is a 64% increase.

The biggest change on the roads between those two periods was the introduction of 20mph and North Wales Live has asked road safety bosses if the increased fines on faster could be due to drivers going more quickly on higher limit roads due to lost time on new 20mph stretches.

This follows road safety data that shows while there has been cuts in crashes, injuries and deaths on 20mph and 30mph roads since the new limit came in that there had been more overall deaths on Welsh roads in the six months after implementation, compared to the same period a year earlier.

But road chiefs explained the other factors in enforcement that could explain these vastly different figures when it came to the numbers caught speeding.

They said that this was partly down to increased numbers of staffing. They said that increased staff in the North Wales Go Safe team has led to an increase in enforcement of all speed limits in June, July, and August 2024 when compared to 2023. These were increases in enforcement hours of 46%, 60% and 86% (per month) respectively.

Go Safe added that a new back office system went live in June 2024 that reduces the time taken to process offences and allows people to view offences online after receiving an Notice of Intended Prosecution.

The other factor they mention is improved capacity for Low Emission Zone cameras. These are average speed cameras on roads where the limit is reduced from 70mph to 50mph to reduce vehicle emissions.

Last year the North Wales team were helping process offences from the South Wales area as well due to shortages in the South Wales Safety Camera Unit. But this year the North Wales team has been able to focus on offences in this region - leading to an increase in fines.

A source at Go Safe said there isn't the evidence that 20mph has to an increase in speeds on other roads.

Clwyd West Senedd member Darren Millar said the data is potentially "troubling" with concerns people were speeding more frequently but said this may not be the case due to the other factors.

He added: "We need an urgent review of the data and comparisons with other regions to ensure that motorists in North Wales are not being unfairly penalised."

Welsh Government and North Wales Police were asked to comment.

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