Police Advocate on the beat – by Cllr Mike Joyce

AS a councillor, one of the top five complaints that most councillors receive is about excess speed.

At our weekly councillor advocates meetings, this topic is usually raised in some form or other by councillors, who have had speeding brought to their attention by concerned residents.

Enforcement is the responsibility of the local police force and when resources allow, they do carry out enforcement in the areas, that we, as Advocates, and others, have highlighted and brought to their attention.

Over the last few weeks we, as advocates, have at our weekly meetings heard that when enforcement is carried out, the results have shown that some motorist, appear to be complacent when it comes to speed limits, especially within the current Covid situation, where traffic can be lighter than normal.

Resources for those in charge at the local stations, having to appropriately balance, in an every changing situation, what resources they have available.

This does not allow monitoring of areas as much as, advocates, councillors, the general public or the police, would wish. This unfortunate situation does however lead to residents becoming frustrated by what they see as an apparent lack of action and in some instances, arriving at the conclusion, which in my opinion is the wrong conclusion ,that they are not being listened to or their concerns addressed, when it comes to speeding.

As Police Advocates, we would like to reassure those residents who have arrived at that opinion that nothing could be further from the truth.

In the discussions we have with those responsible for carrying out enforcement, they would like nothing more than to be able to carry out enforcement and tackle those who feel that it is perfectly acceptable to exceed the designated speed limit in any particular area.

Fortunately, although I am fully aware that it does appears to be the case, they are in the minority.

When enforcement exercises are carried out, or indeed when officers using marked and unmarked patrol cars are deployed, those drivers exceeding the designated speed limit, find themselves being brought to justice. We as Advocates receive regular reports at our weekly meetings of the successes of these actions in various parts of the town and I’m sure word will get round highlighting the fact that enforcement is being carried out.

However, through the Community Speed Watch initiative, communities can assist in monitoring areas of concern, where residents have indicated that vehicles are exceeding the designated limit.

Community speed watch has shown its effectiveness in many areas and there is a very active community speed watch in operation in Kingskerswell which has proved to be very effective.

So what is community speed watch? Community speed watch is made up of community volunteers, who can apply, online, to join a scheme and become part of an existing scheme as an operator under a group co-coordinator.

As volunteers you will be adjacent to the highway, and to ensure their safety and the safety of road users, there is a process which includes full training online which volunteers need to go through to ensure that they have sufficient knowledge and expertise to carry out the duties required, safely in relation to speed watch.

The beauty of community speed watch is that, as volunteers you are not bound by constraints of other tasks, like police officers are and by working together as a team, volunteers can choose when it is convenient to them to set up the observations. They are therefore more flexible than police officers and therefore become more mobile in their ability to attend sessions.

As far as Speed Watch is concerned, I am convinced that this community led scheme is invaluable, showing the motoring public that there is a presence on our highways and offering residents the reassurance needed.

As the group co-coordinator, when asked for an opinion, stated, Kingskerswell Community Speed watch has made a noticeable and quantifiable difference to the speed of traffic through the village.

We were fortunate to get a much earlier restart date than group in the county. This again has made a meaningful difference to average speeds through the village. Due to the new on-line system now in use, we can be assured that the data we gather is reported back to the police and available to our Highway Authority. The results that the group has gathered, has led to frequent visits by the speed camera van and has provided invaluable data to the Highway Authority.

Community Speed Watch for Devon is monitored and co-ordinated by a civilian member of police staff based in Plymouth who is responsible for the co-ordination and administration of Community Speed Watch over the whole of Devon and Cornwall.

Newton Abbot has just recently been granted the approval for a speed watch group, which has generated a considerable amount of interest amongst local councillors. Volunteers are at present going through the registration, training to become CSW operatives.

Before anyone gets carried away regarding the scheme, I must point out that community speed watch cannot just pitch up anywhere they choose along any road. Each site has to be risk assessed and approved by the police force, assessed for its safety, not only to the volunteers but to the road users, and can only operate between sunrise and sunset (ie, in full daylight hours).

If this has whetted anyone’s appetite or there are any budding volunteers out there who consider that they have the time and the ability to join the community speed watch scheme, then I would refer them to the following webpage link, which will give you all the information that will enable you to formulate an opinion.

https://www.communityspeedwatch.org or contact me for an informal discussion at [email protected]