How do you solve a problem like, Speeding...?

At the Hedge End, West End and Botley (HEWEB) Local Area Committee meeting on 30th January, our Borough Councillors agreed to reserve a sum of £3250 to underwrite the procurement costs for a Community Speedwatch team, which Hampshire Constabulary are working to establish in the Hedge End area.

The idea behind Community Speedwatch is that residents will apply to become Police Support Volunteers, and will be tasked with monitoring speed in known problem areas locally, reporting speeding motorists to the Police who will then issue a warning letter. Persistent offenders will get a knock on their door, from the Police, and could be prosecuted.

Now there is one obvious problem with Community Speedwatch. If you drive past the Community Speedwatch team doing 35mph and you see your neighbour in that party, how are you going to feel towards your neighbour when a warning letter drops through your door...? Not very favourably I suspect.

Would I volunteer to do it...?
No. I will not be jumping on the Community Speedwatch bandwagon.

There are some other problems too. For instance, how can we be sure that the volunteers won't discretely put their "enemies" details on to the list of speeders? It may not happen very often, most volunteers will be responsible citizens, but I'm quite sure it will happen one day...

So my question is this. Is Community Speedwatch really the best way of tackling the problem of speeding in Hedge End...?

Superficially, Community Speedwatch is an attractive idea. I can see why our Borough Councillors are enthusiastic about it, but when I think about the potential impact on our local community I'm not so sure that it is wise to go down that route.


As it happens, I cover more than 50,000 miles every year in my job as a van driver so I know from experience that those pesky mobile camera vans are the biggest deterrent against speeding.

Those vans, from the Hampshire Safer Roads Partnership can appear literally anywhere and I know that they'll most likely have measured my speed before I see them. The only sure way of staying out of trouble is to stick religiously to the speed limit. It is easier said than done sometimes, little distractions (such as election campaigns) can sometimes cause my mind to wander, but I do try very hard to stick to the limit. I know that if I routinely ignore the speed limits, the law of averages is such that a camera van is guaranteed to get me one day.


So those random speed traps really do work, they are much more effective than static cameras.

Community Speedwatch would also seem to have that principle of randomness working in its favour, but the people on those teams will be in full public view and potentially identifiable. They do not have the advantage of being able to hide in the back of a van, operating the detection equipment. Overall, I think that the risk of the volunteers becoming targets for hate/abuse far outweighs the other obvious advantages of the scheme. We should not be encouraging residents to expose themselves to this sort of risk, doing a job that is best left to Officers of the Law...

So what is the alternative...?

Well the other technology that I've noticed is very effective whilst I'm out and about in my van, is the speed-indicator sign. The signs that tell you how fast you are going and which encourage you to adjust your speed and comply with the law without any punitive measures being taken.

That's often all the responsible motorist needs, a little more information.

And unlike Community Speedwatch, those signs work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

There are a couple of these signs installed on Woodmill Lane, in Midanbury, Southampton. They've been there for a few years now, so clearly must be having a beneficial effect. If they'd made the problem worse, they would have been removed. Look out for those signs the next time you are passing and see what you think. Does the knowledge that you've been measured doing more than 30mph encourage you to slow down...? It does me.

Perhaps HEWEB would have been better advised to invest in some of those speed-indicator signs, rather than on Community Speedwatch...?

What do you think...?

Thank you for reading

Ray Turner
http://www.facebook.com/hedgeendindependents