Borough will not pursue 30kmh proposal

THE Borough of Queenscliffe says it will not pursue its proposal for 30kmh speed limits across the municipality and has held off from adopting the overarching strategy where it was to be included.

Part of the first draft of the borough’s Active Transport Strategy (ATS) 2023-2031 released in February, the strategy to introduce lower speed limits was intended to be a safety measure and promote active transport more widely.

In response to community criticism, including a 1,700-signature petition, the borough modified the ATS to drop the 30kmh strategy from the revised draft released last week, but two references to 30kmh limits remained, including in a section about design principles: “Where paths cannot be provided within verges, the traffic road environment should aim for speeds of 30kmh [or] lower and very low volumes of traffic.”

The council’s August 23 meeting listed the revised draft of the ATS on its agenda, and borough chief executive officer Martin Gill read out a statement at the beginning of the meeting in response to several public questions about the ATS and the 30kmh issue to address what he described as “a common assumption underpinning many of the questions”.

“The revised Active Transport Strategy before the council does not include any strategies that would see the implementation of a 30kmh speed restriction across the municipality,” Mr Gill said.

“The proposal to trial a 30kmh speed limit in parts of the borough has been removed in response to community feedback.”

He said neither of the two references to 30kmh speeds in the revised ATS meant the council “intends to, or is committed to the implementation of a 30kmh speed limit across the municipality”.

“The design principles would only be referenced when there was an identified safety risk, and no other design solution could be used to improve the safety of pedestrians.”

Officers recommended councillors adopt the revised draft of the ATS, but three of the four councillors present – Ross Ebbels, Donnie Grigau and Robert Minty – voted to defer the ATS for further consideration. Borough mayor Isabelle Tolhurst was the lone vote to adopt the revised ATS.