Anger on minister’s 20mph comments after he says people will ‘get used to it’

Mr Waters was speaking on ITV Wales’s Sharp End political programme talking about the introduction of new default 20mph speed limits.

He defended the scheme after recent polling showed that just 31% of people were in favour of the new lower speed limits due to be introduced on Sunday (17 September)

Mr Waters said: “What we’ve expected to see is that the closer you get to implementation, the support drops.

“We’ve seen that in London with the congestion charge. That’s pretty typical according to the academic research.

“Our tracking shows support is around 50%, so this poll may be an outlier, but we’re pretty confident that, as people get used to it, support will rise.”

Welsh Conservative Shadow Transport Minister, Natasha Asghar MS, who also featured on the programme said: “The arrogance from the Deputy Minister after hearing 66% of the people in Wales were against the blanket 20mph due to be hitting our streets on 17^th September, is typical of Labour in their approach to this madcap policy, essentially saying if you don’t like it tough, you will ‘get used to it’.

“There has been massive backlash to this policy from the Welsh people and with a £33 million initial cost and up to £9 billion hitting the Welsh economy, there is no wonder why people are opposed to this.

“Welsh Conservatives are forcing a vote in the Senedd chamber tomorrow to scrap blanket 20mph speed limits. Let’s hope Labour and Plaid listen to the people of Wales and scrap this ludicrous policy.”