-----Original Message-----

From: Cllr Harcourt Wesley <wesley.harcourt@lbhf.gov.uk>

Date: Wed, 30 Dec 2015 12:20:41

To: Resident1

Subject: RE: NO borough-wide 20 mph !

 

Dear Resident1,

 

Thank you for taking the trouble to write. You do not give any reason behind your objection so perhaps I

can add some detail about what we are doing regarding the introduction of a 20mph limit in the

borough.

 

We are currently going through the detailed consultation responses and have yet to decide what to do.

Indeed, we consulted residents on our manifesto commitment (see attached page 12) to extend the

20mph speed limit. I don't know why anyone would say we have already decided to "bring in a 20mph

speed limit on all of its [the council's] roads", or that we are planning to not respect the results of the

consultation or that the consultation concluded that 55% of people are against an extension of the

20mph speed limit. All those statements are thoroughly untrue.

 

We gave residents three options asking if people agreed to extend 20mph speed limit. The answers that

came back can be summarised as:

 

*       Yes to all roads (45%)

*       Yes but not on the roads listed by each person who responded (26%)

*       No, not on any more roads (29%)

 

So in short there is a 71% majority to introduce the 20mph on all the roads that were not specified by

the residents who kindly took part in the consultation. Within the 26% there are some roads which lots

of people specified as not wanting a speed limit change and there are others with only a small number

of objections. I have asked officials to carry out a full analysis of those figures and, as I say, my

colleagues and I are yet to have a meeting to conclude what the council will do.

 

I'm afraid those that are putting out leaflets saying we're not respecting the results of the public

consultation either don't know what they're talking about or are deliberately seeking to mislead people.

Either way it is not a sensible way to approach this important matter.

 

The consultation on extending the 20mph speed limit on some or all roads was extensively publicised

and not just by the council but by people both for and against it. The council put posters up on poster

sites all around the borough, they put mini lamp post signs up, they sent out thousands of emails and

delivered roughly 80,000 leaflets to households and businesses in the borough. The consultation ran

from 9 June for nine weeks and was followed by the two new public Policy and Accountability

Committee (PAC) meetings on this subject.

 

The PAC meetings were well attended by people who came from all perspectives both for and against

and residents were able to play a full role in the discussions. You might find the paper that went before

the public PAC meeting interesting:

 

http://democracy.lbhf.gov.uk/documents/s71173/20%20MPH%20Report.pdf

 

Any extension of the current 20mph zones will not be a revenue generating scheme as I hope the report

makes clear. We are solely looking at how to improve road safety and reducing speeds is a critically

important tactic available to us. Those most in danger on our roads are pedestrians (particularly

children) and cyclists. Any extension of any 20mph zones will be paid for by Transport for London.

 

We're actually keen to put more money into residents and business' pockets, not stealth tax them which

is something we campaigned against the last council administration on.

 

We are a new administration elected last year but in that time we were the only administration in

London to cut council tax last year. We cut meals on wheels prices by 33% and have in fact cut 16 of the

council charges we inherited. In our first year in office we have also frozen 139 other council charges

and 90% of all council charges, as measured by the income they raise, will be cut in real terms. We

abolished the £12 per hour home care charge for elderly and disabled residents and you may be pleased

to know that we also abolished the rather odd charges for residents to use a fitness trainer in local

parks. As a motorist you will be pleased to know that, following our election win in May 2014, we

blocked the scheduled introduction of a 14.7% increase in parking charges that was meant to be

introduced in June 2014 as you can read here:

 

http://www.thecowanreport.com/2014/12/h-conservatives-planned-147-parking.html

 

So far from trying to ignore the public we are going much further than the council has ever gone before

to actively engage our residents before we make major decisions. I am keen that we act in accordance

with public opinion on all matters and plan to do that on this issue.

 

Thanks again for writing in. I assure you we will take your comments into account.

 

Wesley

 

Councillor Wesley Harcourt

Cabinet Member for Environment, Transport & Residents Services

LB Hammersmith & Fulham

King Street

London

W6 9JU

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