French regional roads back to 90kph

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said he was willing to devolve the speed limit issue to local offices less than a year after the government imposed an 80kph limit on most secondary routes.

Any return to 90kph must be “accompanied by measures” guaranteeing “the highest possible level of road safety”, he said.

Germinal Peiro, president of the Dordogne departmental council, was among those who welcomed the news. He said speed limits on “just over 20%” of the department’s 5,000km of secondary roads would return to 90kph as soon as possible.

Road safety officials rejected a lawyer’s claims that hundreds of thousands of speeding tickets could be cancelled as a result.