ramsey speedwatch

POLICE want to enlist Cambridge residents in a bold scheme to cut speeding and reduce road accidents.

POLICE want to enlist Cambridge residents in a bold scheme to cut speeding and reduce road accidents.

The plea comes in the week a new 20mph zone was introduced in Cambridge’s historic city centre, and outgoing police chief Julie Spence blasted speeding as ‘middle class, anti-social behaviour’.

Officers hope the Speedwatch scheme, which is already actively supported in many Cambridgeshire villages, will be taken up with gusto in the city.

Volunteers are trained to use special Speedwatch screens, which display how fast a vehicle is travelling, and record the registration plate if the driver is breaking the speed limit.

Police then send a warning letter to the vehicle’s owner. For many drivers this warning is enough to make them think twice before speeding again. For persistent offenders, police can prosecute.

John Fuller, community engagement manager at Parkside Police Station, explained residents’ concern over speeding motorists had originally prompted the Speedwatch scheme. He said it had proved popular in the villages where residents had highlighted speeding as an issue.

The Speedwatch kits are shared between neighbouring villages - and as well as catching law-breakers, the data collected provides important research into how bad speeding is.

In Willingham, where residents have been manning the scheme for the past year, they have recorded 960 drivers who warranted police attention with a letter.

Reg Purnell, part of Willingham Action, said a whopping 88 per cent of villagers believed speeding was a problem.

He now heads a team of around 15 volunteers who regularly monitor speeds on the main roads in the village.

“We want to encourage residents to abide by the speed limit.

“We feel we have now demonstrated that Willingham has a speed problem. In the long term I think a bypass for the village would be best. But in the short term I hope it will mean we can get some traffic calming measures – before someone is killed.”

The villagers also have 30mph stickers, provided by South Cambridgeshire District Council, on their wheelie bins – so on refuse collection days motorists are again reminded of the limit.

Now police want to help reduce speeding in Cambridge and they have already trained volunteers in the east of the city. They hope the new project will cut speeding and make the roads safer for everyone. In 2009 there were 455 accidents in Cambridge and 441 in South Cambridgeshire, according to the local authority’s Joint Road Casualty report.

Lewis Herbert, Labour councillor for Coleridge - where police are keen for the project to set an example, would like to see more police enforcement but recognises the scheme is a step in the right direction.

He said: “It could not work by itself. The way it will work is if the police spend some time enforcing the limits in areas identified by residents.

“Overall, it is a good strategy because the people who are speeding are Cambridge residents. We need to connect with people and make them realise that cutting their speed by 10mph could save lives.”

Chris Howell, the Conservative councillor for Coleridge, said: “We want people to respect the speed limits and learn it is antisocial and dangerous to speed. It is about education which does overlap with the Speedwatch project.”

But he expressed concern the police should not be handing responsibility for speed control over to residents and volunteers.

Clinton Hale, the safety camera unit manager involved in the strategic application of the scheme, praised the work of the volunteers who have taken part so far.

“They’re brilliant. They are all local people. Some of their attitudes towards certain areas has changed as they have become more involved in the scheme – so it’s two-way education,” he said.