Thousands of “confused” motorists have been surprised by an “unpopular” change to driving rules.

According to the latest data from GoSafe, 13,507 people were caught speeding on Wales’ new 20mph roads in the month of September alone.

Nearly 25,000 cars were monitored by cameras in September, 95% of them below the fine threshold of 40 km/h.

New analysis shows that around 43 percent of motorists who received a fine decided to take speed awareness courses.

The latest statistics show that more than 52,000 drivers have been arrested since enforcement began.

Last August, 15,284 fines were imposed on individuals, and 11,201 tickets were distributed in July.

New 20mph speed limit rules in Wales came into force last September, but fines were only issued earlier this year.

However, Sam Rowlands, Member of the Welsh Parliament for North Wales, described the statistics as “concerning”.

He said: “Clearly people are still confused by this extremely unpopular and unjustified policy.

“The number of motorists currently caught speeding is very worrying. Many are now driving faster to make up for the time they lost by hanging around in 20mph zones. This whole policy is a complete disaster.

“This will of course make very little difference to the Welsh Government whose new guidelines are far too strict and who have now passed the buck onto local authorities.”

The Welsh Government has now allowed local authorities to reduce roads to 30mph if they wish. However, virtually no routes have been changed since the policy was launched.

A Welsh Government spokesperson said: “The latest police road collision data shows that collisions on roads at 20mph and 30mph combined are the lowest figures recorded outside of the Covid pandemic with additional data released earlier this year showing an average drop in speeds of 4 mph – from 28.9. mph to 24.8 mph.

“So we know things are moving in the right direction.”