A council which rejected every application to rethink its 20mph roads won't be asked to disclose all responses to its review.
More than 1,500 comments were received and 143 roads were suggested for reconsideration in Monmouthshire after the Welsh Government instructed councils to ask the public where they believed the limit should be changed last year.
Only four roads were chosen for further scrutiny by Monmouthshire County Council and the council's Labour and Green administration decided in February not to restore a 30mph limit on any of them. At a council meeting the Conservative opposition requested councillors instruct the administration "to publish the redacted consultation responses in full".
They also criticised the way the council had conducted consultations and suggested the democratic services committee should be asked "to consider and make recommendations to the administration" on how engagement exercises are run. But the motion was defeated on the casting vote of council chairman Labour's Su McConnell after a tied vote.
Conservative group leader Richard John, who proposed the motion, said "many urban areas should have a 20mph limit" but there should be "more flexibility" over where it is applied. He stated that 93% of responses to the council's invitation for feedback wanted changes made and said councillors didn't know how the requests had been assessed.
Cllr John expressed concern that councillors are in the dark about how the 1,500 responses to the traffic consultation relate to their areas, stating: "We've no idea of where the 1,500 people could be. Half of them could be in Llanbadoc and Usk."
Cabinet member for highways, Catrin Maby, explained that releasing all 1,496 responses would be a lengthy process due to the need to redact personal information.
She highlighted the council's participation in the 20mph pilot scheme trialled in Abergavenny and Severnside, noting that before the national policy was implemented in September 2023 all local Monmouthshire councillors were invited to review and provide feedback on the proposed speed limits including suggesting exemptions. Approximately 5.3% of Monmouthshire roads were exempted from the new limit prior to its introduction compared to just 1.3% in Wrexham.
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