Community Speed Watch

Are you concerned about speeding in your local area?

Often motorists who speed through residential neighbourhoods are unaware of the impact their actions have on other road users or the danger they pose and speed checks often show that those exceeding the speed limit are local to the village or surrounding area.

What is Community Speed Watch?

Speeding is a community problem and Community Speed Watch enables local people to get actively involved in road safety and helps encourage drivers and motorcyclists to watch their speed and keep to the limit. Community Speed Watch is a partnership initiative operating in Northamptonshire using the combined efforts of the local Police, County Council and local residents, in association with Northamptonshire ACRE (Action with Communities in Rural England). The scheme aims to help tackle the problem of speeding in local communities and, thus, to improve the quality of life. Over 40 villages have already benefited from this scheme across the county.

Who is eligible?

All villages and local town communities are eligible and, initially, we would normally expect the local Parish Council to volunteer to participate, with the endorsement of the local Police Officer. If you would like to be considered for inclusion in the programme, please contact at Northamptonshire ACRE on 01604 825889 or e-mail beth.caswell@northantsacre.org.uk .The scheme is not suitable for use in the vicinity of an existing fixed site speed camera.

What happens next?

In order to be accepted into the Community Speed Watch scheme a significant proportion of the local residents must be willing to show their support for the initiative by:

Committing to stick to the speed limit in the village and throughout Northamptonshire
Signing an anti-speeding pledge
Encouraging others to do the same

For smaller communities we require 20% of local residents to sign the pledge; for larger communities we require 500 signatures.

Implementation

Having gained the local support and commitment necessary the next step is to identify between 8 and 12 volunteers in each participating village who are prepared to be trained in the use of the speed gun. Working in pairs at pre-selected locations, the volunteers are expected to monitor traffic through the local area and write down details of those vehicles exceeding a prescribed speed.

Completed forms are forwarded on a regular basis to the Police where the identities of the registered keepers can be established. Letters are then sent out, under Police headed paper, to the registered owners explaining a little about the scheme and requesting that they keep to the speed limit in future. A second, more strongly worded letter is sent if they fail to adjust their speed on a subsequent occasion. Continued ignoring of the speed limit may lead to targeted enforcement and possible prosecution by a member of the Safety Camera Team/ Northants Police.

Additional benefits

In addition to the active monitoring of speeds through the use of laser speed guns, participating villages will also receive:

Deployment of portable speed indicator devices to measure speeds before and after local speed monitoring
High visibility Community Speed Watch boards for erection on lamp posts
Educational literature for local residents explaining the scheme
Regular feedback to all residents signing the pledge
Visits from the Safety Camera Team

Next Steps

If you think that Community Speed Watch is something that your local area can benefit from then please contact ACRE on 01604 825889 or e-mail beth.caswell@northantsacre.org.uk