West Lothian 20mph speed limit rollout to begin in January
Livingston, Bathgate and Blackburn are among the first to have the new speed limits introduced
Installation of the new 20mph speed limits in West Lothian is set to begin in the new year.
Councillors heard that the first £500,000 tranche of money to fulfil the Scottish Government pledge to cut speeds on national roads was only confirmed in August.
A meeting of the Environment and Sustainability PDSP heard that a revised first phase will now get under way with a new public consultation once new signs are operational.
The communities included in the first phase are Livingston, including Polbeth and West Calder, Bathgate and Blackburn.
In most parts of Livingston the obvious change will be the change from green-ringed advisory 20mph signs to red-ringed mandatory ones. Some roads which are currently 30mph will receive new signage.
It was originally anticipated that the rollout of phase one would be complete in the financial year 2025/26, with phase two and three to follow on in the second and third year of the project (2026/27 and 2027/28 respectively).
With the confirmation of funding from Transport Scotland of £589,250, payable over the financial year 2026/27 only confirmed in August, the implementation of phase one will now commence in early 2027.
Officers will procure and appoint a contractor and the new speed limit signage will be installed.
While undertaking the review of West Lothian’s urban areas officers noted that the number of streets in phase two and three is similar to the whole of phase one. It is now planned to combine these two phases into the second phase to accelerate the rollout.
The next step will be to bring reports to all the Local Area Committees for the remaining towns and villages in 2027. Officers anticipate implementing the construction of the combined phases 2 and 3 in the 2027/28 financial year, subject to the required funding approval from Transport Scotland.
Included in the phase two rollout will be Broxburn and Uphall, Linlithgow, Armadale and Whitburn. The last to receive the new 20mph zones signage will be the villages across the county.
Councillor Alison Adamson made a plea for council officers to promote the changes as she feared many people would not understand where the new 20mph zones were.
She pointed out that most of the residential roads in her Livingston North ward were already advisory 20mph zones.
Roads officers had stressed from the outset that they were keen to get the changes right, and this means reviewing the new rules once installed to see if they work or not - with a pledge to look anew where problems are created.
As soon as the new 20mph speed limit signage is installed for the phase 1 towns, the public consultation will be launched. QR codes will be used to direct residents to the online survey and links will be added to the council website.
Kenneth Brown, the Roads Network Manager, concluded his report to committee by saying: “The funding commitment from Transport Scotland will allow officers to commence the national strategy for 20mph speed limits in West Lothian.
“The changes to the programme outlined in this report will allow officers to meet our original target to complete the rollout by the end of 2028.”