Letter: New 20mph zones are just a vanity scheme

Even if the number surveyed is quoted we usually have no idea how this relates to the area in question in total or how those who responded were selected.

When these zones were under consideration I contacted Calderdale with my opposition arguments, which space here precludes me from detailing, but these obviously made no difference.

The fact that there has very recently been an article in the national press that another local authority has reviewed its own 20mph zones and found them to have made no difference whatsoever to traffic speeds or accident rates rather supports my view.

Calderdale advised me that they had conducted a survey about these zones and had 2,000 responses.

From the 2011 census we know that the population of Calderdale stands at around 203,826, so that means they have based their decision to go ahead and introduce the zones on a survey result from less than one per cent of the population!

And they didn’t say how many of these responses were for the scheme. Mine certainly wasn’t!

Even if we halve the population figure to remove the younger element it still gives us around two per cent, which is a derisory figure on which to take a decision.

This is not the correct basis for a decision and my opinion is that this has been a vanity scheme under the guise of health and safety, which admittedly can have its place, with the result that thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money have been wasted on a needless project.

Whenever I happened to discuss the matter with anyone they were 100 per cent against the scheme!

Many people are of the opinion that if you give the bureaucrats a chunk of taxpayers’ money they will always waste at least part of it. These zones appear to support that opinion.

Lance Crossley, The Hollins, Todmorden