Highways chiefs are to report back on proposals to reduce speed limits in residential areas to 20mph.

The move follows a Tynwald debate on an amendment tabled by Douglas Central MHK Ann Corlett.

She said: ’The solution to our traffic problems is not all about speed, it’s about people’.

She said a reduction in speed in residential areas was a ’step forward towards safer streets and more liveable streets’.

Mrs Corlett argued that there was strong public support for a default speed limit of 20mph in residential areas.

But she said this would not be appropriate in all streets where people lived and cited the examples of Peel Road, Bray Hill and Quarterbridge Road in Douglas.

Here higher speed limits should apply, she said.

Tynwald voted unanimously to approve her call for the Department of Infrastructure to report back to Tynwald by March on plans for a default 20mph limit in residential areas.

Mrs Corlett had tabled her amendment ahead of a combined vote on a motion made at July’s Tynwald sitting.

Middle MHK Bill Shimmins had called for a 20mph limit on all urban roads and 30mph on narrow rural lanes.

An amendment to this from Infrastructure Minister Tim Baker called merely for a report on the road safety strategy to be laid before the December sitting - and it was this that had gone forward for a combined vote.