The Minister driving forward Wales' new 20mph speed limits has conceded those running the project "probably couldn't have chosen a more difficult area" to test the scheme's exceptions policy than Buckley.

After receiving concerns in writing from Buckley Councillor Carol Ellis that the “Welsh Government don't appear to have learnt any lessons from the pilot” in her ward, North Wales MS Mark Isherwood raised the issue in this Wednesday's meeting of the Welsh Parliament.

Mr Isherwood asked the Deputy Minister for Climate Change, Lee Waters MS, what policy analysis the Welsh Government undertook before implementing the unpopular 20 mph speed limit.

READ MORE: Local authority 'should have discretion to retain 30mph limit on key roads'

He was told “policy was four years in the making”, but Mr Isherwood challenged him over the discretion local authorities have been granted to change the new limit, and Welsh Government’s claims that in Spain, where they have 20 mph as their default position, deaths and accidents have fallen.

Mr Isherwood said: “How do you respond to the Flintshire County Councillor representing part of your Buckley 20 mph pilot area, who wrote last week, stating, 'Unfortunately, Welsh Government don't appear to have learnt any lessons from the Pilot. The powers given to Authorities are not clear, and making a case why the road should be excluded is difficult for our Council Officers'?

“And, noting that Spain had more road deaths per million inhabitants than the UK in 2022, how do you respond to the statement by the Spanish Interior Minister in January, comparing the figures for 2022 with 2019, the last pre-pandemic year without mobility restrictions there, that 2022 represented more deaths than in 2019, and, quote, 'When it comes to cyclists, the number of fatalities also increased'?”

In his response, the Deputy Minister said: “In terms of the pilot we ran in Flintshire, the whole point of a pilot is to try things, and part of trying involves failing and learning from the failure, and I don't see any problem with that. 

"In fact, that's the whole point of doing it. We decided in different settlements to trial different approaches.

"So, in some areas, we trialled monitoring, in some, we trialled enforcement. In the case of Buckley, we decided to trial the exceptions procedure. 

READ MORE: Signs cause confusion over new speed limit in Buckley

"Now, there was a debate about whether or not we should allow some exceptions within Buckley as part of that trial, or to take an area-wide approach, and it was decided, for the purposes of testing that approach, to take an area-wide approach.

"I think that Buckley has shown that an area-wide approach does not work, and the exceptions procedure is best used, particularly for communities like Buckley, where part of the road goes through almost a semi-rural area, where there aren't any houses, and another through Liverpool Road, through far more dense population. 

"So, it's a really tricky example—we probably couldn't have chosen a more difficult area to pilot the exceptions, frankly.”