TfL Refs: FOI-3724-2324; FOI-3748-2324
Thank you for your requests received by Transport for London (TfL) on 18 and 19 January 2024 asking for information about the speed limit reduction on the A20.
Your requests have been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy. I can confirm that we hold the information you require.
Specifically you asked:
This request is made with reference to previous requests that you addressed regarding this above, including: FOI- 2558-2324, 2679-2324, 2917-2324.
Firstly, can you clarify – by providing a marked-up plan of the road - what stretch of the road your previous data related to. Additionally, can you please address the following queries/requests:
Given that the opposite side of the same road (i.e. heading into London) has not been similarly restricted (and still has a 70mph limit), can you:
- Clarify why?
The surface water flooding and aquaplaning safety issue only affects the Kent bound carriageway. Dual carriageways can have different speed limits in opposite directions.
- Confirm that the data you have previously made available (in relation to the noted requests) does not include data relating to vehicles/incidents on the other carriageway; and if it does, can you please separate the data – allocating the incidents to the separate carriageways;
The information previously provided includes:
Transport For London- A20 SIDCUP BYPASS ROAD - SWANLEY PETROL STATION- SUMMARY - 28.06.2023
This report provides details of seven collisions that have occurred near the petrol station between 03/12/2019 and 10/10/2022. The details of these collisions were provided by the operator of the petrol station. Of these collisions, seven occurred on the eastbound carriageway and one on the westbound carriageway.
Contributory Factors report
This is an output from the CollStats database for the 36month period between 01/01/2020 and 31/12/2022 (please note the report states 04/11/2020 to 30/07/2022. These are the first and last dates of collisions that occurred within the 36 month study period).
CollStats provides a record of all recorded Personal Injury Collisions (PIC). The report provides details of seven personal injury collisions within the study area. Of these collisions, two occurred on the eastbound carriageway, two occurred on the westbound carriageway, two were self-reported (the Police did not attend site and therefore data is unavailable or unvalidated). The last collision occurred on the B2173 Maidstone Road.
The inconsistency between the two documents is because the majority of the collisions recorded in the Transport For London- A20 SIDCUP BYPASS ROAD - SWANLEY PETROL STATION- SUMMARY - 28.06.2023 report would appear to be damage only i.e. they did not result in a PIC. Therefore, they would not be recorded within the Collstats database.
Of the seven collisions listed in the Transport For London- A20 SIDCUP BYPASS ROAD - SWANLEY PETROL STATION- SUMMARY - 28.06.2023 report, one was recorded on the CollStats database during the study period (Ref. 01210346647 dated 27/11/2021). This collision occurred on the A20 westbound carriageway and appears to have involved five vehicles. This collision resulted in a serious injury. Contributory factors were noted as failure to judge other person’s path / speed.
A further collision recorded within the Transport For London- A20 SIDCUP BYPASS ROAD - SWANLEY PETROL STATION- SUMMARY - 28.06.2023 report is also included in the Collstats database but falls outside of the study period (Ref. 01190222530 dated 03/12/2019). This collision occurred on the eastbound carriageway and involved a single vehicle. This collision resulted in a slight injury. Contributory factors are noted as loss of control and unfamiliar with model of vehicle.
For completeness please see the 2 documents attached: Drawing ‘XXXXX-TFL-004-19-DRG-TR-0001’ and ‘Full Details’ of these collisions which details the location of the seven PIC recorded in Collstats for the study period. This considers both the east and westbound carriageway.
- Provide the same data you have previously provided for the East-bound carriageway for the London-bound carriageway; and
- Provide the same records (i.e. incident records for the last 3 years) for both sides of the road for the section of road from where the speed limit returns to 70mph to the M25 Junction.
This section of road does not form part of the Transport for London Road Network (TLRN) and TfL are not the Highway Authority. This section of road forms part of the Trunk Road network and any request for data should be made to National Highways.
Confirm when the intended repair works will be carried out, and what the cost of the works are presently estimated to be?
Major work is required to put in place permanent measures to tackle the flooding, and we are working to do this as soon as possible. Currently, we are aiming to begin construction work on these measures in May.
I believe from another FOIR TfL responded to that the cost of implementing the scheme is circa £160/180k. Given that this is public money, I assume that a cost benefit analysis, or similar, was conducted to support the implementation. Can you - confirm if this was the case, and, if so, confirm what revenues were predicted to be generated by the scheme from penalties charged over its duration?
A number of options were considered to mitigate the surface water flood risk, and this option was deemed to be the most proportionate measure. Please note it is the responsibility of the police to enforce speed limits and issue speeding fines, the income from which goes to the Treasury, and not to TfL.
I have reviewed documents that you have previously issued in support of your actions (i.e. those appended to your response to FOI 2679-2324) and they do not appear to be consistent – with many of the incidents listed on in the TfL document not mentioned in the “Contributory Factors” document. It is also notable that the majority of the incidents in the latter document do not identify standing water as being the cause/contributing to the incident. Given this, can you please clarify the relationship between these documents, and what they are intended to evidence?
As mentioned above, four of the seven collisions within the Transport For London- A20 SIDCUP BYPASS ROAD - SWANLEY PETROL STATION- SUMMARY - 28.06.2023 report were due to aquaplaning in wet weather, and all collisions involved loss of control. A reduction in the speed limit helps to mitigate the impact of these collisions.
If this is not the information you are looking for, or if you are unable to access it for any reason, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal as well as information on copyright and what to do if you would like to re-use any of the information we have disclosed.
Yours sincerely,
Mary Abidakun
FOI Case Officer
FOI Case Management Team
General Counsel
Transport for London
