It's "just a matter of time" before someone in Farncombe is killed by a speeding car if the town council fails to implement 20mph speed limits across the town, a councillor has claimed.

Farncombe and Catteshall councillor Alex Adam made the claim during a debate on introducing the 20mph zones across the town.

The town council's policy and management committee was debating whether to lobby Surrey officials to implement a 20mph zone for drivers right across Godalming and Farncombe.

If implemented, the zone would cover all five of Godalming's town council wards: Binscombe, Farncombe and Catteshall, Central and Ockford, Holloway and Charterhouse.

Cllr Adam said: "I live in Farncombe, where I live between four different schools and a couple of nurseries. I walk around here about 8.15 in the morning, and there are lots and lots of kids and pushchairs and bikes but there are two or three individuals per morning who exceed the speed limit. The speed limit up Kings Road, The Oval and Nursery Road is a death trap.

"If we don't support this motion people in the Farncombe area will die. It's just a matter of time."

Godalming Cycle Campaign has thrown its weight behind the idea, with chairman Martin Sandford saying the group believes a 20mph limit would make Godalming and Farncombe a "much safer and more attractive place".

In a letter to the committee, the forum said the issue for cyclists was that the town has roads that are safe to ride on, surrounded by busier roads. Putting 20mph limits on the busier roads would enable the creation of safe routes to schools and make cycling in the town safer.

Charterhouse councillor Steve Williams, who proposed the idea, said that the last yearly figures showed around 600 people were killed or seriously injured on Surrey's roads, between 30 and 40 of them children.

In Waverley, 74 people had been killed or seriously injured during the same period, four of those children.

"Speed kills, and we know that in a built-up area the car is much less of a killing machine travelling at 20mph than one travelling at 30mph," he said.

"You are seven times less likely to die if you are hit by a car travelling at 20mph than if you are hit by a car travelling at 30mph.

"20mph limits encourage the use of active transport, reduce pollution and create a better, more balanced transport environment."

And he said, if the scheme was adopted, the town would not see "road humps everywhere," but signage, roadside technology and a public information campaign would ensure motorists stuck to the rules.

[H]'Not justified'.[.H]

Holloway councillor Peter Martin said he wasn't opposed to 20mph speed limits, and had backed them in Milford, but "I am opposed to this wide area across Godalming and across Farncombe". "I don't think it's justified and I think the money would be better spent elsewhere," he said. He said the numbers of road collisions and fatalities had dropped by 67% across Surrey since 1989, and numbers this centruy had halved. "There is no evidence to justify 20mph limits on all the streets across the town," he said. And he added that "speed humps, chicanes, speed cameras" in the residential streets of south London had proved "woefully inefficient". The reduction in casualties was "nothing to do with 20mph limits" and was down to enforcement of the speed limit, campaigns such as Safe Drive Stay Alive, Bikesafe schemes, Community Speedwatch and pedestrian training for children. "I am in favour of strict enforcement of speed limits. We need to encourage thepolice to do their job with enforcement," he added. [H]Cultural shift.[.H]

Shirley Wardell said: "We are asking people to consider their speed and make this culturally unacceptable. Even if it was just to save one or two children in the area it would be worth it. Driving slowly in built-up areas saves lives."

Charterhouse councillor Steve Cosser said: "Cluttering up the area with 20mph signs doesn't make any difference."

"Are we going to suggest that on some of the major feeder roads such as Charterhouse Road we are now going to stick 20mph signs up there and think that people are going to reduce their speed?

"It's not solved by a glib solution that if we put 20mph signs up it will solve it."

Fellow Charterhouse councillor Chris Neil said: "20mph signs will make people feel safe and want to walk and cycle around, so that it becomes a default way of getting around rather than driving a car."

Central and Ockford ward councillor Richard Ashworth said he had been involved in a case in Binscombe in the 1990s where residents had asked for a zebra crossing.

"The policeman said there wasn't enough money, and a child had to die first," he said. "A child did die and the crossing was put in.

"We have to have a change of culture. It's not all about money, it's about life, and I would like to endorse what Cllr Adam was saying. St John's Street is just an accident waiting to happen. If we can prevent one death, I don't think we can put a price on that."

[H]'Small islands of safety'.[.H]

Council leader Paul Follows said Godalming and Farncombe had "small islands of safety" interspersed with larger roads that were dangerous for cyclists and pedestrians. Saying the 20mph zones would not provide a 'silver bullet', he said there were many ways of mitigating the risk of accidents. "It's a whole set of policies that need to be used in tandem to have a tangible effect," he said. "I am personally quite tired of hearing arguments about enforcement. If you did nothing because you were fairly sure it wouldn't be enforced there would be plenty of things that wouldn't be dealt with at all." Cllr Williams added that: "A change in transport culture is something that is essential for our safety and also for our planet. Do we really want to promote active transport and that modal shift in transport that we need? "We want to reduce road casualties and the danger of being hit be a vehicle travelling at 30mph rather than a vehicle travelling at 20mph. One in three of the population of the UK now live in an area with 20mph limits. 20mph is now normal, and something that is rapidly becoming the norm. "Residents want that freedom of choice of how to travel, and 20mph on our streets will give them that choice." Councillors voted by 13 votes to three to authorise Cllr Follows to write to Surrey and Waverley urging them to back the idea, and asking them to task staff with getting the scheme up and running.