by Trevor Bevins, Local Democracy Reporter.
All Dorchester roads could be covered by a blanket 20mph maximum speed limit – with one exception.
A public consultation about the proposal from the town council is expected to begin shortly with a decision in the autumn.
Town councillors will visit Bridport and Lyme Regis to see the effect of 20mph limits already in place in the two west Dorset towns.
Town councillors have been told that the lower limit across the whole town will avoid confusion and save lives.
Only a handful of roads in the county town currently have 20mph limits, the few that are in place largely by schools.
Cllr Stella Jones said one of the first roads to have the lower limit, Fordington High Street, had been widely welcomed by residents living there and she hoped other areas of the town would also welcome the change.
A town council planning meeting was told that the ‘whole town’ approach would need persuasion if it was to gain widespread support with opposition thought likely from taxi, bus and delivery drivers.
Some councillors were not happy with the one exception to the 20mph limit – Middle Farm Way which runs around the south and western edge of the Duchy’s Poundbury estate, effectively acting as an inner bypass.
Cllr David Taylor told a planning and environment committee meeting it was illogical to have one exception, a view shared by Cllr Molly Rennie.
Cllr Sue Biles, who headed the town council’s working group on the 20mph limit, said the reason the exception was being proposed for the road, keeping it at 30mph, was because the group wanted to encourage drivers to use the route rather than venture into Poundbury’s other through roads, especially Peverell Avenue and Bridport Road.
She said the Middle Farm Way was also different to other roads in the area, with wide verges, no houses immediately on the street edge and few junctions. Those that did exist had good visibility.
Poundbury councillor Richard Biggs said he would support the 30mph limit being retained for Middle Farm Way – saying the road had originally been proposed as a 40mph limit when it was built. He acknowledged that enforcing a 20mph limit on the route was likely to be difficult.
Town councillors will be attending events in the town throughout the summer to explain the reasons for pressing for the widescale 20mph limit and may also hold a one-off public session to explain the thinking behind the proposal.
Talks will also be held with groups and organisations including the Civic Society, schools, bus companies, the town’s business groups, the Duchy and the town’s Transport Action Group.
The final proposal will come back to a town planning and environment committee in November before a full council meeting at the end of November takes a final votes – passing the request to Dorset Council for the necessary agreements to be made.
