Andrew R.T. Davies MS: One of the things that has been
highlighted, First Minister, is the knock-on effect this will
have on emergency services. The ambulance service, for example,
have said that, in their working plan and management tool,
ambulances can only travel at 20 mph over the speed limit. So,
whereas in a 30 mph zone they can do 60 mph if they're
blue-lighting it at the moment, they will be going down to 40
mph. We've seen letters and correspondence from South Wales
Police that there will potentially be a knock-on effect.
What discussions have the Welsh Government had to change the
working framework that the blue-light services will have to
operate under so that there will not be an unintended consequence
of ambulances being delayed or emergency blue-light services
delayed in getting to those vital call-outs that this policy
could potentially affect?
First Minister of Wales:
Llywydd, we have those conversations all the time. I don't think
that those anxieties are shared by the services either. I think
that those anxieties will not be borne out in practice. All our
blue-light services are used in Wales to dealing with 20 mph, 30
mph, 40 mph, 50 mph, 60 mph, 70mph restrictions on different
roads in different contexts. They manage that perfectly
successfully; they will manage this in exactly the same
way.
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