“It’s difficult to understand”: Campaigners criticise Peak District ‘renaming’ deal with Skoda as road signs replaced; Councillors hail 20mph limit lifting as “nobody kept to 20 and it was never enforced” + more on the live blog
Callum is here, and very jealous of those of you further north who last night had their first bit of rain in weeks! Today’s live blog will not feature any rain dances however…
Wed, Jul 29, 2026 10:03
29 July 2026, 09:38
Peak District 'rebrand' unveiled
Honestly, when we first covered this announcement last week, we reacted with some confusion. How can a company rename a national park? Don’t we all somewhat own the national parks through our government?
A quick Wikipedia check finds that unfortunately not, and that all the government can do is decide whether to create a national park and then offload all responsibility for it to a separate authority, one which does receive some government funding but is free to sign agreements with whoever it wishes…
We also, what with some images appearing somewhat computer-generated, thought it was a bit of a gimmick, we didn’t actually expect signs renaming the country’s oldest national park to pop up on the roadside. Alas…
View this post on Instagram
As a reminder, the campaign marks the launch of the Skoda Peaq, a seven-seater 2.5 tonnes SUV that’s the largest car in the Czech manufacturer’s range.
Eric Boutin, director of Skoda UK, says the new electric car “fits perfectly with the ethos of the Peak District National Park.
“We’re passionate about encouraging more people to get outdoors and experience these incredible protected spaces. Cycling has always been part of Škoda’s DNA – after all, the brand started life on two wheels – and that heritage still shapes how we think about mobility today.”
Skoda have also covered the cost of cycle hire from the Parsley Hay Cycle Centre for the week, providing you use their discount code.
Phil Mulligan, chief executive of the Peak District National Park, said that the “reasonable amount” Skoda paid “greatly helps the authority to deliver important work.” He added that the partnership aligned with the park’s values on active travel.
“Unfortunately, it is not free to deliver such public goods, they have to be paid for.” he told the BBC.
“With our government grant continuing to be cut in real terms every year and only covering about a quarter of our operating costs, we need income from a range of sources to continue to be able to deliver critical services for the nation.”
The signs will be up until Sunday, though that’s not enough for some campaigners…
“If national parks are prepared to sell their very name to the highest bidder, then we’re already on the path to industrial extraction of the most protected landscapes.” Tom Laws told Auntie.
“The Dark Peak’s internationally important peatlands have been burning for weeks, releasing stored carbon into the atmosphere.” Harry Brook (not that one) added.
“As these landscapes continue to smoulder, it is difficult to understand why the national park authority has chosen to partner with a company whose core business relies on fossil fuel transport.”
29 July 2026, 11:15
Unstoppable
View this post on Instagram
29 July 2026, 10:13
20mph
Having lived and studied in Cardiff, when this tweet came up on my feed I couldn’t help but share it further.
Wales’ imposition of 20mph ‘default’ speed limits in 2023 was met with controversy from drivers annoyed at the prospect of going slower, and even from cycle race organisers.
However, the benefits of 20mph speak for themselves…
> Cyclist casualties down 28% and 900 fewer road injuries since 20mph limit introduced in Wales
Still, for the Conservative councillor in my old ward of Llandaff in Cardiff, the default ban has annoyed him enough to get the ban lifted on the dual carriageway running through the north of the City.
In my own experience, the road has so frequently been packed during morning and evening rush hours it’s difficult to imagine cars travelling much faster than 20mph anyway.
Still, after months of hard work, the councillor’s lobbying has paid off…
Others will try & claim credit.
After years of campaigning to get this section of A48 Western Ave changed from 20mph to 30mph. The day has finally arrived.
Temp traffic lights, overnight ripping up 20mph markings.
Sorry for the traffic delays. @caerau10 @TedPeskettNews pic.twitter.com/qFlpouhqTe
— Sean Driscoll (@Sean4Llandaff) July 28, 2026
When congratulated on his achievement by fellow Conservative councillor Calum Davies, Driscoll replied that “20mph on this section of Western Ave with dual carriageway, was inappropriate. Almost nobody kept to 20, and it was never enforced.”
It’s not quite clear why it was inappropriate considering junctions at either end and sets of traffic lights regularly halted traffic anyway.
Using Driscoll’s logic, it also appears that you don’t need to follow a law if you agree with a load of other people not to follow it. Yet something tells me if cyclists so much as dared to move into the middle of the lane and kept to 20mph there might have been hell to pay.
But road tax…
29 July 2026, 10:09
"You've got to be as clean as you can"
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Callum is a News Writer for road.cc, having initially joined as a freelance journalist in September 2025. He is also a Road Book contributor and has written for the almanac since 2023. He has a master’s degree in Broadcast Journalism from Cardiff University, where his dissertation focused on Geraint Thomas’ retirement and the boom and bust of the domestic racing calendar. He also has a degree in Scandinavian Studies & Politics which is somehow even more niche.
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Latest Comments
quiff 8 seconds ago
@a1white That bit was never 20mph though, only this bit - not sure if it technically counts as dual carriageway, but there is median infrastructure:
quiff 6 minutes ago
@mdavidford Went down here today (by bike, shared path) but didn't spot the changes. The 20mph limit used to apply to a relatively short section (half a mile?) from the River Taff to just after the junction with Cardiff Road - a large part of which does have central reservation / build out of some sort. This section passes a park, a university campus and (the back of) a school. I was in the tiny minority of people who seemed to stick to the 20mph limit here when it was free-flowing, but at peak times 30mph is a pipe dream anyway. Don't know why the councillor has spent so much energy on it. That, and objecting to the reduction of free parking from 2 hours to 30 mins in council car parks.
a1white 14 minutes ago
@mdavidford Ahh yes, this bit, further up the road: https://maps.app.goo.gl/GqGikmkdmNrUaCUe7
mdavidford 27 minutes ago
@a1white I thought the same, but if you turn the view around and back up the road a bit, it is dual carriageway - our blogger just happens to have shown the bit just after it ceases to be one. In the Streetview images the 20 limit begins at the start of the brief bit of dualling. Which bit(s) of road the changed limit now applies to isn't clear. [NB - if you search for 'Western Avenue Cardiff' on Google maps, the pin you get is right where the view in the blog post is, so I suspect that default view was just dumped in without any further digging into whether it was the relevant section.]
a1white 39 minutes ago
Ermm... looking at that Google streetview image, of the road in Cardiff, it does not look like dual carriageway to me. A dual carriageway is a road separated by a central reservation (or median strip). In this section it has a few wands, which is not a central reservation, and further up the road there is no separation at all apart from paint. From Wikipedia: "A road without a central reservation is known as a single carriageway regardless of how many lanes there are"
mitsky 57 minutes ago
Re The Skoda Peaq/Peak District news Evidently I was wrong. *insert facepalm emoji* ("So Skoda have taken a leaf out of Dung-Old Karen Taco Trump’s book and are re-naming something when they have no authority to do so?") https://road.cc/news/cycling-live-blog-21-july-2026
lesterama 1 hour ago
@Pub bike it's almost as if the engineers got so wound up putting the internal cables through the head tube that they couldn't be arsed beyond that.
mdavidford 1 hour ago
Because what's going on here is definitely not cricket!
EK Spinner 3 hours ago
"carefully/slowly weaving through some cars ...... and while trying to squeeze through the last bit" Maybe its just me but maybe these are the lines that start off the driver on the irrational road rage, Yes we are allowed to filter through traffic but sometimes a bit of patience is required too. If you are ending up so close that you are making contact with someone else's property then maybe just hold back a little until there is space. I am not attempting to justify or suggest that the response was proportionate but lets be honest the chances are that the OP may have played down thier own actions that triggered the nutter.
7 thoughts on ““It’s difficult to understand”: Campaigners criticise Peak District ‘renaming’ deal with Skoda as road signs replaced; Councillors hail 20mph limit lifting as “nobody kept to 20 and it was never enforced” + more on the live blog”
Because what’s going on here is definitely not cricket!
Re The Skoda Peaq/Peak District news
Evidently I was wrong. *insert facepalm emoji*
(“So Skoda have taken a leaf out of Dung-Old Karen Taco Trump’s book and are re-naming something when they have no authority to do so?”)
Ermm… looking at that Google streetview image, of the road in Cardiff, it does not look like dual carriageway to me.
A dual carriageway is a road separated by a central reservation (or median strip). In this section it has a few wands, which is not a central reservation, and further up the road there is no separation at all apart from paint.
From Wikipedia: “A road without a central reservation is known as a single carriageway regardless of how many lanes there are”
@a1white I thought the same, but if you turn the view around and back up the road a bit, it is dual carriageway – our blogger just happens to have shown the bit just after it ceases to be one. In the Streetview images the 20 limit begins at the start of the brief bit of dualling. Which bit(s) of road the changed limit now applies to isn’t clear.
[NB – if you search for ‘Western Avenue Cardiff’ on Google maps, the pin you get is right where the view in the blog post is, so I suspect that default view was just dumped in without any further digging into whether it was the relevant section.]
@mdavidford Ahh yes, this bit, further up the road:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/GqGikmkdmNrUaCUe7
@a1white That bit was never 20mph though, only this bit – not sure if it technically counts as dual carriageway, but there is median infrastructure:
@mdavidford Went down here today (by bike, shared path) but didn’t spot the changes. The 20mph limit used to apply to a relatively short section (half a mile?) from the River Taff to just after the junction with Cardiff Road – a large part of which does have central reservation / build out of some sort. This section passes a park, a university campus and (the back of) a school. I was in the tiny minority of people who seemed to stick to the 20mph limit here when it was free-flowing, but at peak times 30mph is a pipe dream anyway. Don’t know why the councillor has spent so much energy on it. That, and objecting to the reduction of free parking from 2 hours to 30 mins in council car parks.