Tuesday September 30th 2025
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Stuart Sommerville
Speed bumps will be a last resort for West Lothian as it rolls out the national 20mph limits with officials hoping to avoid the “hard to maintain” measures.
It’s an expensive road that council officers don’t want to go down as the project is introduced to built up areas of the county including West Calder and Polbeth.
Crucial to the success of the scheme is convincing drivers that the new speed limits are practical as well as safe.
At this month’s meeting of Fauldhouse and the Breich Valley Local Area Committee councillors heard about the plans to introduce the new 20mph zones as part of the first tier of changes in parts of West Calder and Polbeth.
Kenneth Brown, West Lothian’s roads network manager told councillors speed bumps and other engineering solutions are expensive and need regular maintenance, adding: “We would hope that, in time, driver behaviour will improve.”
Councillor Pauline Clark said: “I was on holiday in France this year, and they’ve introduced the equivalent to 20mph limits there, but where they’ve got huge speed bumps as well.”
She asked: “Would we be looking at that, or is that something we would hope to avoid?”
Mr Brown said: “We are going to be doing quite a lot of monitoring before and after we make these changes, and if we’re not seeing an improvement, then we will have the opportunity to go back to Transport Scotland and ask for some additional money to fund engineering measures.
“Those are expensive. The introduction of signs and lines to do 20mph speed limits is relatively inexpensive.
“We would hope that, in time, driver behaviour will improve and we can avoid doing the more expensive and hard to maintain things like speed humps.”
Most built up roads through West Calder will see speeds cut to 20mph. In West Calder 35 roads will see speeds cut from 30mph to 20mph while in Polbeth the number will be 23.
Roads engineers stressed that they are keen to get the changes right as quickly as possible.
Temporary traffic regulation orders (TTRO) will be introduced for around 18 months and during this time drivers and members of the public are encouraged to respond to a consultation which will run on a specially set up page on the council’s website.
The first tier of 20mph zones which includes West Calder and Polbeth, alongside Bathgate, Blackburn and Livingston is set to become permanent in 2027, with the scheme then moving on to smaller communities.
Asked about policing the new 20mph roads, Sgt Jamie Duthie acknowledged that “resources are challenging” but said that the police would work with the council and officers would be issued guidance.
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