After the Vale Council decided to go ahead with a 20mph speed limit through the Vale village of Aberthin.
There have been calls for safety measures in the village for some time, and difficulties were encountered when a ‘controlled pedestrian crossing’ was considered.
Now with Section 106 cash available after the development of land at Court Close, Aberthin, a sustainable transport contribution of £45,376.41 will be used to pay for the plan.
Cllr Andrew Pritchard, who represents Aberthin on Cowbridge Town Council, said: “It has taken many years to get this in place. Mr Chris George of Aberthin and his wife have campaigned for this for many years.
“I have been on the town council since last October and since then I have been canvassing for a safe crossing in Aberthin. Now, after months of work and letter writing by the residents of Aberthin, we have achieved a 20mph zone around all of Aberthin, which is a fantastic result. We also have a speed watch group to monitor speeding traffic through the village.
”The Vale Council is taking part in a pilot project aimed at capturing long term data and developing an enforcement strategy before the planned roll-out of a default 20mph speed in Wales in April 2023. However, Aberthin was not originally considered for this. St Brides Major and Peterston-super-Ely were put forward, and St Brides Major was chosen by the Welsh Government. Work on this was due to begin in June 2021.
However, because there was such strong local support for such a scheme in Aberthin, the Vale Council is going ahead with it, and is also making plans to do the same in Peterston-super-Ely.In theory, this decision could be ‘called in’ but at the time of going to press, no call in request had been received. The call in deadline was 5pm yesterday (1st July).
In a report presented to the Vale Council cabinet recently, council officers said: “Whilst it would be prudent not to install many 20mph schemes due to the planned implementation of the proposed Welsh Government default 20mph speed limit in Wales, the introduction of an experimental scheme in Aberthin using the S106 funding available is the desire of the local ward members. There is also considerable community support for such a scheme, and the geometry of the main highway through Aberthin does lend itself to a 20mph scheme.”
The report says that preparatory work has been done in Peterston and there is similar community support for the scheme there. It is proposed that both schemes be introduced using experimental traffic regulation orders where objections and comments, as well as traffic data, would be collected in their first six months of operation. This data, taken over an 18-month trial period would be made available to Welsh Government to assist with their pilot project
