The Prime Minister could block councils from introducing new 20mph zones as part of a “plan for motorists”.

The Daily Telegraph reports Rishi Sunak will use his party’s conference in Manchester at the weekend to announce that he will scale back low-traffic neighbourhoods and make it easier for drivers to challenge parking fines as well as curbing the power of councils to introduce new 20mph speed limits on main roads.

The newspaper says the policies come in the wake of the Tories’ shock victory in the Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election “amid anger at Labour policy towards motorists”.

The report also says the measures could include limits on councils’ abilities to levy fines from traffic cameras and restrictions on enforcing box junction infringements, plus a cap on the number of hours a day that car traffic is banned from bus lanes.

Meanwhile more than 445,000 people have signed a petition calling on Wales’s Labour government to “rescind and remove the disastrous […] law“ making 20mph zones mandatory on residential roads. The website Guido Fawkes points out that this is more signatories than the total number of people who voted for Labour in the 2021 Senedd election.

(Picture – Yay Images)