Rural road to get 50mph limit

Speed limits on rural roads will be cut from 60mph to 50mph under plans announced by the Government.

Limits on residential roads near schools will be lowered from 20mph to 30mph under the proposals, which aim to cut road deaths by a third by 2020.

The Department for Transport wants reviews of rural road speed limits and 50mph zones ‘where this will have a significant impact on casualties’.

It comes despite a petition against lowering the single-carriageway national speed limit from 60mph to 50mph which has gained nearly 25,000 names.

Road Safety Minister Jim Fitzpatrick said: “We’ve already made real improvements to the safety of our roads – there are now almost 17,000 fewer deaths or serious injuries in a year than there were in the mid-1990s.

“But it is intolerable that eight people are still dying on our roads each day.

“We want to make Britain’s roads the safest in the world.”

The plans are set out in a consultation running till July 14.

Find the petition against a 50mph national speed limit here: petitions.number10.gov.uk/noNSLreduction/