Caroline Ansell’s survey to gauge views on a default 20mph speed limit in the town has come back with overwhelming opposition to such a move.
Caroline’s research that found 84% of people would be opposed.
Nearly 1000 people took part in the survey with a further 600 Facebook posts and emails.
The survey did find some muted support at 41% for targeted 20mph zones in places like outside schools.
By far the biggest issue coming out of the survey was local people wanting to see potholes fixed. Over £20 million of extra council and government funding is now being used to repair the holes and ESCC is fixing 30,000 a year across the county.
“Supporters of the 20 mph limit look to a speed reduction to inspire greater take up of walking and cycling – both important objectives - and I vouched to survey local people on a 20mph speed limit when I spoke at our Transport Summit to test local support for this move,” said Caroline.
“I have now concluded that work and residents were pretty clear they do not support a blanket 20mph around our town.
“The survey also showed that local people are not totally sold on targeted zones either so any future proposal will need to be very much case-by-case and supported by a strong evidence base.
“Rolling out new 20mph zones costs and in relation to how money should be invested, the massive support for more pothole and pavement investment was not a surprise and the county council is busy in our town repairing the roads using substantial government grants and its own resources to do so.
“I will carry on working with the county council and ministers to ensure as much resource comes to East Sussex as possible to continue the road fixing work because that is what people want to see happen.”
