COUNCIL bosses have been criticised for scrapping a pilot 20mph speed limit in a residential area of Blackburn with Darwen borough.

Cllr Phil Riley, executive member for regeneration, has confirmed that following the end of the three-year trial in Mill Hill, he has no plans to bring in the road safety measure elsewhere.

The pilot was introduced in March 2014 in response to the Lancashire Telegraph’s ‘Slower Speeds, Safer Children’ campaign sparked by Blackburn with Darwen’s higher than national average figures for child road casualties.

Yesterday borough Liberal Democrat Leader Cllr David Foster, who spearheaded calls for the 20mph limit in all residential areas, said: “I am disappointed.”

Tory group leader John Slater, who highlighted Lancashire County Council’s introduction of the 20mph limit across nearly all its residential areas, said: “This is the wrong decision.” Cllr Riley said: “The Mill Hill 20mph pilot has been in trial for three years now. The scheme was designed with the primary focus of being sign-only with no engineering features to establish if this alone would bring the speeds down.

“The results have proved conclusively that without any engineering features and or physical alterations to the highway that 20mph signs do not affect driver behaviour and this potentially leads to a dangerous situation for road users. The pilot has ended and the roads will revert to 30mph limit.”

“This is the end of plans for 20mph limits in the borough without the use of costly traffic calming measures. People cannot say we did not give it a good trial but after three years the results are conclusive and in four of the roads affected speed actually went up.”

Cllr Foster said: “I am disappointed. We need to work harder on 20mph zones. At the moment many do not realise they are in one. Driving at 20 mph makes roads safer in residential areas, we need to make drivers more aware of these limits so it becomes part of their natural driving behaviour and our high figures for child casualties fall.”

Cllr Slater said: “This is the wrong decision and the council should look again at this and the success of the scheme across Lancashire in places like Burnley and Hyndburn.” A Lancashire County Council spokesman said: “The vast majority of residential areas across our 12 boroughs now have the 20mph limits at a cost of £5.8million, cutting roads casualty figures.”

A report to Cllr Riley recommends that ‘the 20mph limit pilot scheme be brought to a natural conclusion given the unsuccessful survey results found and that future consideration of a 20mph limit roll out is not taken forward unless the areas have physical traffic calming or engineering design measures to reduce speeds.”