Quiet Lane speed change agreed despite police concern

The "last piece of the legal jigsaw" for a county's new Quiet Lanes project has been approved, despite concerns raised by a police force.

Oxfordshire County Council's plans involve a set of partial road closures to traffic using gates or bollards in order to create routes for cyclists, pedestrians and horse riders when there is an alternative available.

The local authority approved a speed limit reduction from 60mph to 20mph on Shepards Pit Lane in Stanton St John on Thursday.

The decision was the first of its kind in the project but came despite opposition from Thames Valley Police which labelled it as "highly inappropriate".

The speed limit change makes up one part of the "overall traffic calming measures" in the Quiet Lanes programme, according to a council report.

The route is the first of 10 "experimental" orders the council plans to introduce.

Alterations to speed limits cannot be made using legislation to create Quiet Lanes, hence why Thursday's decision was passed separately by the authority.

Council transport chief Gareth Epps said there was "clear support" for the scheme on Shepards Pit Lane.

That was despite concerns raised by police, including the scheme's failure to comply with national guidance on Quite Lanes.

Responding to a consultation, a police traffic management representative said: "Accepting you already have an internal policy in terms of setting 20mph speed limits, and following your withdrawal from national guidance, I can only object to these current proposals as being highly inappropriate under the circumstances."

Epps said he "can't let the comment from Thames Valley Police go by the wayside".

He said he was "surprised that a public body such as the police would make a comment describing a plan as inappropriate without making the vaguest attempt to say why".

"I would hope they would find a more appropriate way to express their view on this," he added, given the force and council's work in partnership on road safety.