The number of crashes involving pedestrians and cyclists on city centre roads has gone up since 20mph restrictions were introduced.

Figures obtained by The Argus also show the number of serious accidents in 2013 is also higher than two out of the three previous years.

Meanwhile, the drop in accidents on city centre roads has slowed since the new speed restrictions were introduced in more than 500 city centre streets in April.

Motoring campaigners said the outcomes failed to justify the cost of introducing the scheme and called on the council to reconsider bringing 20mph restrictions to other streets in the city.

But Green councillors said it was “not realistic” for accident numbers to continue to drop at the same rate and that the past six months had seen the lowest accident figures in the past four years.

In the first six months of the 20mph zone this year there were 129 accidents compared to 145 for the same period in 2012 and 168 in 2011.

This means accidents dropped by 11% this year but by almost 14% in 2012.

The number of accidents involving cyclists increased from 44 last year to 48 in the first six months of the 20mph limits, while accidents involving pedestrians also jumped from 35 to 40.

There were also 28 serious accidents involving motorists, cyclists and pedestrians this year compared to 29 in 2012, 15 in 2011 and 25 in 2010.

Steve Percy, of the People’s Parking Protest, said: “The argument for these zones was that it would protect people, but these figures show it doesn’t seem to have done that.”

He added: “It seems these figures cannot justify the amount of money spent on introducing the scheme.

“The council should consider not bringing in the other phases because on this evidence it will achieve very little if anything at all.”

Councillor Ian Davey, lead member for transport, said: “It is impossible to know what would have happened if we hadn’t done anything.

“But we do know that measures have been taken over the last few years including lower speed limits and that the number of people killed and injured on roads in the city are going down.

“It’s not realistic for the rate of collisions to continue declining at an increasing pace.

“20mph is not an idea peculiar to Brighton and Hove, one in six UK residents live in a 20mph street.”

The figures in full:

  Motor vehicle only Pedestrian casualty involved Pedal cycle involved All collisions April 1 2010 - September 30 2010     Fatal 0 0 0 0 Serious 15 15 6 25 Slight 102 38 39 149 Total 117 53 45 174 April 1 2011 - September 30 2011     Fatal 0 0 0 0 Serious 4 5 9 15 Slight 102 39 39 153 Total 106 44 48

168

01 April 2012 - 30 September 2012     Fatal 1 0 0 1 Serious 20 13 9 29 Slight 80 22 35 115 Total 101 35 44 145 01 April 2013 - 30 September 2013     Fatal 0 0 0 0 Serious 18 16 10 28 Slight 64 24 38 101 Total 82 40 48 129 Note: All collisions may not match sum of the other three categories if there were any collisions involving both a pedestrian and a pedal cyclist