Full list of Leeds roads set for speed limit reduction as City Council approves 50mph plan

This week, Leeds City Council officially approved plans to reduce the speed limit on several high-speed rural roads from the 60mph national average down to 50mph.

Routes across Adel and Wharfedale, Garforth and Swillington, Harewood, Kippax and Methley will all face a speed reduction.

City Council routinely reviews police injury collision data on the road network within Leeds, identifying collision trends and numbers to identify routes with the poorest record for fatal or seriously injured crashes.

An authority spokesperson said: “The council is committed to reducing road deaths and improving road safety, as set out in our Vision Zero Policy, which aims to eliminate road deaths and serious injury on our roads by 2040.

“As part of this we have approved plans to reduce the speed limit on a number of high-speed rural roads to 50mph.

“These schemes will be issued to contractors within the next few weeks and we will be aiming to implement the new speed limits during the school summer holidays in order to minimise disruption.”

As part of their injury collision analysis, City Council identified roads in rural locations that at the present time has a speed limit designation of 60mph.

The following routes were identified as suitable for a pilot study into the effects on collisions and actual vehicle speeds if the speed limit were lowered to 50mph.

• A61 Harrogate Road from the Eccup road to Harewood Village
• A659 Harewood Avenue/Harewood Road from Harewood to Collingham
• A659 Otley Road/Arthington Lane from its junction with the A61 to Rawden Hill
• A642 Wakefield Road from the A63 roundabout to the former Swillington brickworks site
• A656 Ridge Road from the M1 J47 to the A63 Selby Rd
• A63 Selby Road from the Strikes Garden centre to Great North Road

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The scheme is set to be implemented following the consultation and support of members across the affected wards, bus operators and emergency services.

Police bays to allow for increased camera enforcement are also set to be implemented along the proposed routes.

No set implementation date has yet been indicated but the changes are expected to arrive in the first half of 2024.