Hopefully, when you’re driving from now on, you are adhering to the new 20mph speed limit that took effect in residential areas of the country on Sunday.

But the early evidence suggests that the rollout of the new speed limits has been anything but smooth.

Across west Wales, the Cambrian News is reporting instances of new signs not being ready, old signs being taken down, no signs in place, or new signs being taken down or vandalised.

In essence, this new speed era is not universally approved.

As soon as the new national residential speed limit went live, a petition calling for its review had another 46,000 signatures virtually overnight.

When the empirical data suggests that every community will benefit positively from the 20mph limits, the anecdotal data suggests that anyone who relies on their vehicles will spend longer going from A to B, and will have to put in longer days to get the same number of work calls in to make ends meet.

Sure, there’s a safety argument to be made, another too about the benefits to the environment and our air quality. But the new limits come with a hit to real people going about their work in these difficult times.

More importantly, for the people of west Wales, there is the realisation that those who make the rules in Cardiff Bay are out of lockstep with the rest of us.

We live in a region where the road infrastructure is poor. You’re basically out of luck if you need to rely on bus services. Trains? It says a lot that you have to travel to England from this region if you wanted to go to Cardiff Bay to complain about the abysmal state of rail service.

Is it any wonder the people of west Wales don’t feel as if they’re being listened to?

Why have councils failed to listen to most people who are not necessarily opposed to the new 20mph limit in principle, but would like their views to be heard?

There is a growing disconnect between the hard-working and hard-pressed people of this region and those who administer our government services at the local and national levels.

That’s not healthy for anyone. Just listen to real concerns from real people, please.