North Yorkshire Police has said it would not support a blanket 20mph limit policy in towns and villages in the Harrogate district and across the county, despite calls from campaigners.

North Yorkshire County Council is facing calls for another review of its road safety policy just days before councillors consider a series of nine recommendations to update its 20mph speed limit policy.

It comes as schools in the Harrogate district have called for 20mph to improve road safety for children.

Last September, Killinghall Primary School headteacher, Sarah Bassitt, urged the authority to take action before a child is killed or seriously injured on the 30mph stretch of main road outside its building.

Campaigners have claimed the county council, which undertook a 15-month inquiry into its 20mph zone policy, has ignored crucial evidence as well as the benefits of introducing the limit across all towns and villages.

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The authority’s transport scrutiny committee will examine proposals to make its policy more explicit in considering 20mph speed limits around schools, as well as extending the distance traditionally considered around schools in order to encourage greater use of active modes of transport.

Other key changes it will consider include the production of a list of high-risk collision areas using three years’ worth of data to examine whether an area would benefit from a 20mph speed limit.

However, a meeting of the council’s Thirsk and Malton constituency committee heard campaigners remained unhappy with the recommendations.

Campaigner Ian Conlon claimed the support of Philip Allott, the county’s police, fire and crime commissioner, “for default 20mph zones in all towns and villages”. 

He added children, elderly and vulnerable people were being “disproportionately excluded from public space” by allowing cars to travel at 30mph in towns and villages.

Mr Conlon said the council was not addressing the positive impacts of 20mph zones, such as people feeling safer and children playing outside.

He said: 

“It does not assess the evidence from other area that have developed 20mph speed limits. It is only looking backwards, at what North Yorkshire has done, rather than what it could do.”

Councillors heard North Yorkshire Police would not support a blanket 20mph limit and that they needed to be self-enforcing, either through driver behaviour or physical measures.

In addition, ahead of being elected in Mr Allott pledged he would only “support and implement 20mph in urban locations, where local authorities are prepared to support it”.

Mr Allott told the Stray Ferret that he would support local authorities judging 20mph zones on a “case by case basis”.

He said:

“It’s sensible that local authorities do not have their hands tied. Providing that a local authority supports it [a 20mph zone], I will support it.”

The council’s deputy leader and former highways boss Cllr Gareth Dadd told the meeting it “would be foolish to usurp the findings” of the inquiry,

Meanwhile, a member of the investigating team, Cllr Roberta Swiers, said although she had initially believed a blanket 20mph limit would be a good idea, the evidence had proved it was not “the safe answer”.

Harrogate residents have called for the 20 mph speed limit outside four schools in the town to be enforced.

So far more than 150 people have signed an online petition, which can be found here, urging safety action on Pannal Ash Road.

Pannal Ash Road used to have speed activated signs but they were removed to save money last year.

The petition highlights a North Yorkshire County Council survey that found 80% of drivers exceeded the speed limit on Pannal Ash Road.

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In just one day, the council found that out of 3,974 drivers only 366 drove at the 20 mph limit. The majority drove between 20 and 30 mph but 613 drove between 30mph and 50mph.

Ruth Lily, who created the petition with her neighbour Jenny Hayward, told the Stray Ferret:

“Ten years ago my daughter was walking to school and her friend was hit by a car. They thankfully made a full recovery.

“After that the council put in some measures to control the speed but the signs were removed last year.

“Ever since then I have noticed that cars have started to drive at increased speeds on Pannal Ash Road.”