Following a successful 20’s Plenty Pilot project outside schools
in Ipswich, the scheme has been extended across Suffolk.
All schools in Suffolk can request to go on the list for a
school zone but only schools meeting current criteria will be
eligible. A request for a zone can come from a Councillor,
Parish Council or a school. Ideally, the school will have a
School Travel Plan and there will be a reported speeding problem
and a clear need for children to cross directly outside the
school. Cul-de-sacs are not included in this scheme as they
have no through traffic. The number of school zones to be
introduced in any one year will be determined by the budget
allocation each year.
Due to many rural schools being located within conservation or
environmentally sensitive areas the safety zones will be in the
form of a "gateway" featuring entry and exit signs with coloured
anti-skid surfacing. In urban locations there will be
coloured signs/plates or "dragon's teeth".
The new speed limits are advisory only and cannot be enforced by
the police but they act as an additional driver warning in
conjunction with the 30 mph (legally maximum) speed limits and the
"School" signs currently in place. The school zones will, as
advised by the police, only cover the school frontage and any
additional highway/road on which the school may have a gate -
pedestrian and/or vehicular entrance.
The sites that have received the new speed limits have reported
better driver awareness of the schools location and heeding of the
additional warnings. The maximum legal speed past most
schools will remain 30 mph and will continue to be enforced by the
police.