Many drivers now have their eyes glued to speedometers to avoid breaking the new 20mph rules across thousands of Wales' once 30mph streets. But, one Welsh family had to go to some effort to prove the rule wasn't as widespread as one company believed.
While the limit is for most roads that were previously 30mph many have used the term 'blanket' to describe it. This seems to have included one insurance company.
In a thread of updates posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, Welsh TV presenter Jess Davies explained: "My little brother has a black box in his car and his insurance VOIDED his car policy yesterday for continuously speeding. But he had not.
"Turns out the black box company has BLANKETED 20mph zones across Wales, including roads that are 60mph. My mum had to go stand next to a 60mph and 40mph sign outside our village and take a photo holding her phone up that had her google maps location showing where she was for them to correct it."
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The BBC and S4C personality told her 167,000 followers about the bizarre situation. She added that she found the whole situation a "mad move" by the black box company which was not named in the online post.
Welsh Government officials have been defending the 20mph policy, which cost roughly £32 million to roll out nationally last month. They have always hit back at claims it was a blanket limit - implying every road was to be subjected to the new rules. On their website, it explains: "This is not a blanket change. These changes will affect most 30mph roads, but not all. The law changes the default speed limited on restricted roads which are usually residential or busy pedestrian streets with streetlights."
WalesOnline ran an explainer article that outlined why, in simple terms, the Welsh Government's decision was not "blanket". Summarised into two points, they wrote that, firstly, this does not apply to any other roads.
If a road is 10, 40, 50, 60 or 70mph they will not change. You are not going to drive from North Wales to South Wales on the A470 at a continuous 20mph - though you may have to go at 20 instead of 30 through some villages. The fact that only 30mph roads are changing means this is absolutely not a "blanket" change.
Secondly, this change doesn't even apply to all 30mph roads. Local authorities were granted the power to keep roads that met certain exception requirements at 30mph if they want to - with hundreds identified days after the initial rollout.
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