August 20, 2008

A new police initiative to combat speeding drivers has come under fire today.  Members of the public are being encouraged to report drivers that they think are speeding to the police.  Opponents of the scheme, which is being piloted at Swarland, in Northumberland, say it is open to error and abuse.

The reports are submitted anonymously and without any equipment to verify the speed of the driver in question.  Critics claim that it’s impossible to tell if someone is travelling at 29 mph or just over 30mph with the naked eye.  The registration details should be accompanied with the gender of the driver as well as the date and time.

When a vehicle is reported the police will issue a letter to the alleged miscreant and add their details to a database.  If a driver is reported twice they will receive a visit from the police and upon their third notification their vehicle will receive ‘target vehicle status,’ whereby police will look out for their car or van while on patrol, although there are no details what will happen from there. 

Last night local residents, Ian and Beccy Mordue, were concerned that people who are not trained to spot speeders are being given such powers.

Beccy, 54, said: “How on earth do they know what speed they are doing? Could there be some vendettas going on in the village? You could be doing 28mph, how would anyone know unless they had a speed gun? I just think that it is open to abuse and error.”

Ian, 60, is concerned that the scheme could be abused by “someone with an axe to grind” against another villager. He added: “It seems it would be left up to ordinary people to decide whether someone was speeding which did not seem right to me.

He continued to say: “I have lived there about 19 years and I would not have thought speeding was a problem at all. Most people go quite carefully through the village but obviously someone disagrees.”

Police came up with the scheme in response to complaints in recent years from Newton on the Moor and Swarland Parish Council.  There has been an issue with speeding on The Avenue and Park Road in Swarland, where residential streets quickly turn into open country roads and where there is a shortage of speed limit signs. 

As the area was the scene of an accident around 10 years ago in which two people were killed at a crossing beside the village school, and a series of minor scrapes and near misses, it wouldn’t have met the required accident level to warrant a speed camera, although since regulations have been relaxed the accident level in the area is no longer crucial for getting a speed camera installed. 

Alnwick Neighbourhood Inspector Sue Peart last night defended the scheme, stating that it had been based on Neighbourhood Watch and other similar projects, which rely on the community helping police.

She said: “This is not about taking enforcement action against motorists, but educating them and encouraging people to drive safely through the village. However if a vehicle is regularly being brought to our attention clearly we have a duty to investigate.

“The co-ordinators of the scheme are responsible members of the community, such as councillors, and as with all information which is passed to police as part of a ‘watch’ scheme, there has to be an element of trust that it is accurate and given in good faith.

“Initial feedback from villagers is that the scheme has already had a positive impact in reducing the number of people speeding through Swarland and once it's been evaluated it may be rolled out to other villages.”

Incredibly despite only having 562 adult residents the village has a reported seven neighbourhood watch schemes running. 

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