NRCC have received an update from the Highland Council Road Safety Team on the on-going 20mph pilot programme. The team have advised that all of the roads currently restricted to 20mph under the scheme will remain at 20mph except for one, a stretch of the B9090 Nairn to Cawdor Road, once the final TRO is in place. The Ward Members have requested that Sandown Farm lane remains at 20mph but have accepted the recommendation of the Road Safety Team on the B9090 stetch. This means there will be only two roads in Nairn under the control of THC that will be restricted to 30mph, the other being the A939 from the junction with the A96 to the edge of Town.
Section of Cawdor Road being returned to 30mph restriction, marked in purple
Please see below update from the Road safety Team
The review of the ongoing 20mph pilot programme that is running in Highland – full details for the programme, settlements, background information, TTRO and the road to permanence can be found on THC webpages at www.highland.gov.uk/20mph.
20mph Criteria
The assessment criteria provided to Highland Council by Transport Scotland used for assessing settlements for inclusion in the programme can be found here https://www.highland.gov.uk/info/1523/transport_and_streets/1049/20mph_programme/4
TRO Process/Timescales
The Highland Council reduced speed limit roll out has been delivered using a Temporary Road Traffic Regulation Order (TTRO) which is valid for a period of 18 months and runs till 31st January 2025. The Council are required to go through the full statutory process for the making of the permanent Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) and it is scheduled that this process will begin in September this year.
Post Implementation Assessment Criteria
A simplified version of Transport Scotland’s ‘Measurement of Success’ post implementation assessment criteria given to Highland Council against which all 125 settlements in the Council Area have been assessed is as follows:
| Recorded Mean Average Speeds | Action Required |
| Mean average speeds ≤ 25mph | No further action required, proceed to final TRO. |
| Mean average speed 25.1mph – 28mph | Further speed management measures to be considered and either proceed to TRO or review for removal. |
| Mean average speed ≥ 28mph | Is the road appropriate for a 20 mph speed limit? Is there community support for a 20 mph speed limit?Consideration for implementation of Engineering solutions if there is the community will to retain the 20mph speed limit.Revert limit back to 30 mph? |
Highland Wide Picture
Following on from the informal wider public consultation that the Council undertook in Dec ‘23/Jan ’24 the following has been undertaken.
The Road Safety Team have now carried out assessments, and provided recommendations, for all 125 settlements included in the current TTRO.
These assessments were undertaken using both the Transport Scotland Criteria along with the feedback from the Informal Public Consultation undertaken at the end of 2023/beginning of 2024 along with public correspondence the Road Safety Team has received out with this.
The Road Safety Team have met with each Area Roads Operations Manager to discuss these assessments and come to a final agreement from a road’s perspective.Elected Members have been informed of the assessment outcomes and have had chance to comment on them.
Out of the 125 settlements that have changed, the recommendations to date are as follows:
82 settlements proceed straight to the final TRO with no additional infrastructure requirements.
24 settlements requiring soft measures (e.g. installation of 20mph roundels, speed indication device signage) and then proceeding to inclusion in final TRO.
19 settlements with locations within them that are not achieving the desired speed result and require review.
All plans for 20mph schemes in Nairn & Cawdor can be found here https://www.highland.gov.uk/directory/72/locations_for_20mph_programme/category/571
I am pleased to provide you with the details re the assessments that have been carried out on the temporary 20 mph speed limits that have been in place in Nairn & Cawdor since last summer and the recommendations we are looking to take forward into the final Traffic Regulation Order (TRO).
We can confirm that all settlements in Nairn & Cawdor have now been assessed against the criteria provided by Transport Scotland and agreements reached with the local Area Roads Team.
| Sandown Farm Lane | Our initial thoughts here were to revert the section marked in purple on the PowerPoint to 30mph. On discussion with members they have requested that this remains at 20mph so we are happy to go with this as the recommendation. |
| B9090 Nairn to Cawdor Road | The recommendation is therefore to relocate the gateway on this section of road closer to Nairn itself (i.e. revert the section marked in purple to 30mph) as the current section doesn’t fit criteria and relocation closer to Nairn itself will greatly benefit compliance within the town as a whole. |
Nairn River Community Council 