The government has no evidence to back up its attack line that Labour and Lib Dem councils are using traffic calming measures to “police people’s lives” or planning “inappropriate blanket use” of 20mph speed limits, documents have revealed.
The debunked claims were contained in the Plan for Drivers, launched last month amid a row over the scrapping of the northern leg of the HS2 railway project.
Introducing it, transport secretary Mark Harper told the Conservative Party conference that the government wouldn’t tolerate the “sinister… idea that local councils can decide how often you go to the shops”. He also referred to “a Labour-backed movement to make cars harder to use, to make driving more expensive, and to remove your freedom to get from A to B how you want”.
