ABD

The Association of British Drivers
Speed Limit Notices

Official Sites
A few honest councils now publish their own notices on the web:

Argyll & Bute
Barnsley
Bath & N E Somerset
Caerphilly
Ceredigion
Cheshire
Cornwall
Dumfries & Galloway
Isle of Man
(Select 'Public Notices')
North Lanarkshire
Poole
Portsmouth
Rotherham
Special commendation must go to Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council who appear to allow residents to register to receive information about future transport consultations, including speed limit reductions. Top marks to them for this refreshing openness.
Salford
Shropshire
Solihull
South Ayrshire
South Gloucestershire
Surrey
(They even have a map)
Welsh Assembly
(M'ways & Trunk Roads in Wales — hopeless design that makes it difficult to find anything)
West Berkshire
NB Many councils have adopted a 'content management system' that frequently changes URLs without notice. These nuisances can usually be identified by absurdly long URLs. If you get a 'page not found' error, try using their search engine, sorry but we are not responsible for the inability of some councils to organise their websites properly.

As far as we are aware, these are the only Local Authorities that bother to publish speed limit notices on their website. If you know of any others please contact the webmaster.

If you find your local authority has not published a speed limit reduction notice on its website, please complain about that as well as the speed limit. Only by constant public pressure can we force them to be properly accountable to the public.

Gazettes
Official Notices may also be found in the Gazettes:

London Gazette (England & Wales)
Edinburgh Gazette (Scotland)
Belfast Gazette (NI)
Tip: Put a road number or area into the search box.
Twitter
Follow our automated relays of Road Traffic Act Notices in the London & Edinburgh Gazettes on Twitter:

RTAN_London (England & Wales)
RTAN_Edinburgh (Scotland)
(The Belfast feed is not yet up to scratch)
Your local council may be on Twitter too, though whether they bother to tweet public notices is another matter.

Speed Limit Notices are one of the ways local authorities can revise the speed limit on a road. These Notices are like planning proposals — you can object to them if you believe the new limit will be inappropriate.

Local authorities are legally obliged to advertise such notices, but they tend to do this by using small notices, closely typed in legalese English, in the depths of the local paper, or obscure Gazettes. They may also put A4 notices on posts along the route. A4 notices are the size of a standard sheet of writing paper and are thus impossible for drivers to see. They are often placed where it is impossible for drivers to stop safely.

Most councils thus make little or no attempt to properly advise people who drive along the road of the proposed reductions. This is because they don't want people to object.

The ABD wants to see a law that forces councils to place large notices alongside any road where a speed limit reduction is proposed such that the sign can be easily seen by drivers without stopping. The signs would indicate where to obtain further information.

Councils should also be forced by law to publish all such notices on their website. There is absolutely no excuse for not doing so.

Speed Limit
Reduction
Proposed
01632–546487
www.honest.gov.uk

The ABD wants to see signs like this placed on roads where any speed limit reduction is proposed.
Generic content such as this would enable the signs to be re-used throughout the county to minimize cost.

So far such signs have been reported in use by: Buckinghamshire and Solihull.
Well done to them.

As it is, few people even know about the reduction until the new limit has been imposed — by which time it is too late to object.

Many of the new speed limits being imposed these days are too low for the roads, leading to traffic bunching, drivers attempting unsafe overtakes and, ultimately, complete lack of respect for ALL speed limits.

Drivers — you CAN object:
If you spot a Speed Limit Notice in your local paper, or on a piece of A4 paper attached to a lamppost, please send us details.
If you wish to object to any planned reduction, please refer to our document:
Speed Limits — How they are set and your Right to Object
When you object to a new speed limit, it is VITAL that you use your own words, and that you don't simply copy the example letter on the ABD site.

Too Late?
If you find that a speed limit has been imposed on a road you frequent, and you had no prior knowledge, please complain to the council and ask them why they did not make more attempt to consult drivers who use the road. They will undoubtedly fob you off with what the law requires, but complain anyway and demand they do the job properly in future (see our sign above). Also write to the local press protesting at the lack of adequate public consultation.