Twenty is plenty - that's the strong message from a new anti-speed campaign launched in Brentwood.

Save Brentwood Action Group (SBAG), the Brentwood Gazette newspaper and This Is Essex are - appropriately in National Road Safety Week - spearheading a campaign for a town-wide 20mph speed limit.

The campaign will tie in with green lobby group Transport 2000's bid to change the way people approach problems caused by traffic.

The aim, which the Gazette and This Is Essex fully endorse, is to introduce a 20mph restriction on all urban roads and country lanes in the borough, with some roads to have even slower speeds.

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Chairman of SBAG, Martin Banks, said: "Lower speed limits could transform communities, A safer environment benefits vulnerable groups who can move around freely and allows cycling and public transport to flourish.

"A change of attitude is needed and priority given to pedestrians, the Slower Speed Initiative would improve the quality of life in the town for all."

Nationally in 1996 nearly 3,600 people were killed and almost one third of a million injured in road collisions. Evidence shows that speed was the single biggest factor.

Brentwood Gazette editor Keith Potter said: "The Brentwood Gazette has, unfortunately, too often had to report on tragic fatal road accidents which can break up families forever.

"As responsible people we cannot sit back and wait for more horrors.

"Speed is a major factor in road deaths and we must all do everything we can to make Brentwood a safer place to walk, cycle and drive."

Vice-chairman of SBAG Gerry Bender said: "We want to raise the profile of safety and show things can be better than they are."

The campaigners hope to organise public meetings where people can gather their thoughts and momentum for tackling traffic issues.

The Slower Speeds Initiative also calls for very slow speed areas, such as Home Zones (10 mph areas with legal priority for pedestrians) and safe routes to schools.

Mr Banks said that in Harlow - which is part of the same police division as Brentwood - many residential roads already have a 20mph limit.

Schoolchildren there have been asked to design the warning signs for motorists.

Further away, many European towns and cities are now successfully adopting slower speed areas.

Many German, Danish and Dutch streets already have 30 kilometre per hour limits - under 20 miles per hour and in Austria the town of Graz has won strong public support for cutting speeds to 20mph on three quarters of its roads.

A recent report in the Brentwood Gazette revealed that 86 per cent of those questioned thought that a 20mph speed limit on urban roads was a good idea.

Slow down call . . .Gazette editor Keith Potter, left, is pictured this week with campaigners Gerry Bender and Martin Banks from the Save Brentwood Action group.

Picture by: LAURA JOHNSON

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.