Pembrokeshire County Council is opening up an opportunity for residents to request changes to 20mph limits in their locality.

The move follows a speech outlining his transport priorities by new Transport Cabinet Secretary Ken Skates, who pledged to put the voice of Welsh citizens at the heart of decision making on transport, while setting out a three-phase plan on 20mph.

To aid this approach Pembrokeshire County Council welcomes constructive views from residents. 

If you wish to forward a suggestion, with valid reasons, for why a road should be exempted from the 20mph national speed limit in Pembrokeshire, the Council will log your feedback and review it once new exceptions guidance is available from the Welsh Government. The Council expects to receive this guidance by the summer.  

The Council will not be able to log any general comments about the 20mph National Policy, as that is a matter for the Welsh Government and Welsh Government Ministers. 

If your feedback relates to a Trunk Road, these also are not the responsibility of Local Authorities. For queries relating to Trunk Roads please email [email protected]. 

More information on Trunk Roads is available on Datamap Wales.

Please note, for your feedback to be recorded/considered we will require the first line of your address and post code. 

This will assist Council officers during the review process to ensure that requests for change are made by those who reside within the same area / community for which the request is being made.

Please ensure all the required details are forwarded to the following email account for consideration:

[email protected] 

THIS week in the Senedd, the Welsh Liberal Democrats have urged the First Minister to return the £200,000 donation he received from a company linked to environmental crimes.

Speaking to the Senedd on Wednesday, party leader Jane Dodds MS urged FM Vaughan Gething to return money donated to his campaign by Dauson Environmental, a refuse and recycling business owned by David John Neal.

Mr Neal received a 3-month suspended prison sentence in 2013 for illegally dumping waste at a conservation site on the Gwent levels.

His companies Atlantic Recycling and Neal Soil Suppliers were also prosecuted and given fines and costs of £202,000.

Then in 2017, Mr Neal was given another suspended sentence of 18 weeks, with fines and costs of £230,000 after failing to remove the waste.

The Welsh Lib Dems have called on the FM to return the donation, as part of wider calls for a shift away from the influence of “big money” in Welsh politics.

Commenting, the Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats Jane Dodds MS said:

“This entire episode has casted a dark shadow upon Welsh democracy and has rightfully led to many questioning the integrity of Vaughan Gething’s leadership campaign and the way our democracy works here in Wales.

Unfortunately for many of us this is hardly surprising, as our political system has been broken for quite some time now.

A system that empowers the elite donor class whilst simultaneously shutting out the voice of the voter is a perversion of democracy itself.

This is why our wider goal must be to remove the influence of ‘big money’ from Welsh politics once and for all.

We cannot have another government that prioritises the interests of its financial benefactors over those of the Welsh people.

We need to take a firm stance in rooting out the influence of cash in Welsh politics, for the sake of our communities we must start prioritising their interests and needs instead of having more self-serving politicians.”

AN OFFICIAL policy for flying flags at, and lighting up, Pembrokeshire’s County Hall in order to avoid “the potential to cause controversy and create tensions between community groups,” is to be presented to full council.

At the April meeting of Pembrokeshire County Council’s Policy & Pre-Decision Overview and Scrutiny Committee, members agreed – with one vote against – to recommend official guidance for the flying of flags and lighting up of County Hall is backed by full council at its May 9 meeting.

The call for official guidance had been made following a March request by Cllr Huw Murphy for the Haverfordwest home of Pembrokeshire County Council to fly the Falklands flag on June 14, to mark the islands’ “return of democratic rule following an illegal military occupation by Argentina” 40 years beforehand, in 1982.

At that meeting, members agreed to refer the matter to the committee, along with official guidance on lighting-up, through a cross-party group.

Leader Cllr David Simpson said: “Like all symbols, flags and the lighting up of buildings are open to wide-ranging interpretations and therefore also have the potential to cause controversy, and create tensions between community groups whose opinions may differ, a situation which we ourselves have experienced here previously.

“County Hall should be a neutral venue and I therefore suggest we secure cross-party support for any cause requesting the flying of a flag or lighting up of the building.”

Members of the April committee heard a long list recommendations and conditions for both flags and the ‘lighting up,’ one of the recommendations for refusal was “for any party political purposes either, locally, regionally, nationally or internationally”.

It also said any requests “considered to be of a political or potentially controversial nature,” will require the consideration and approval of the leader of the council in consultation with the chief executive, in accordance with the code of recommended practice on Local Authority publicity in Wales.

The final decision will be made by full council at its May meeting.

County Hall has previously been ‘lit up’ for a wide variety of reasons including Holocaust Memorial Day, Universal Children’s Day, International Women’s Day, in tribute to NHS workers, and to mark domestic abuse awareness month.

It has also been lit up for LGBT+ History Month and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.