Successful start in Crewkerne campaign against speeding drivers
Crewkerne's war against speeding has claimed its first victory as the town council prepares to introduce flashing signs and relaunch its speedwatch group in a bid to deter speeding drivers.
The authority is eligible to receive two speed indicator devices under Somerset County Council’s SID programme and has written to express its interest.
It is also hoped the reinvigorated speedwatch group could be up and running as soon as next year, following a successful presentation evening Victoria Hall on Monday.
The council hopes the two approaches will pave the way for safer roads in Crewkerne.
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Annette Roffey, spokeswoman for Crewkerne Town Council, said: “The presentation evening was very successful with at least six possible volunteers who were very enthusiastic.
“That’s more than enough to get started with.
“The next stage is to organise a training session with a police officer and it looks likely this will be in mid-December. All being well, we could be up and running by the new year.
“However, the more volunteers that come forward the less time anyone will have to spend out on the road and, of course, the more times teams can go out the better the deterrent.”
Kenneth Simmons, a potential recruit who lives in the Kithill area, said: “The amount of speeding that goes on in Crewkerne has got to be stopped; there are going to be fatalities otherwise, especially in the Kithill area.
“There is a little ones school just down the road and once the cars come past the speed bumps they think they can do about 90mph. They go hell for leather.
“A young child has only got to step out for a second and there is no way a car would stop in time.
“I can hear the screeching of tyres and engines revving from inside my house.
“Speeding has got to be stamped out.”
Town councillors have drawn up a shortlist of roads where the SID equipment would be best used.
Mount Pleasant, Broadshard, Kithill and West Street are among the areas they feel speeding is at its worst.
But the devices are mobile and the plan is to regularly change their locations so motorists do not become used to them being in one place.
Mayor Robin Pailthorpe said: “I think this is a jolly good idea. We have seen the positive effects these devices have when we had one temporarily at Mount Pleasant.”
The SIDs operate on a constant basis and, as well as flashing at speeding drivers, they count the number of vehicles that pass the device and record their speed.
The data collected is used to produce a report which is sent to the local authority and the police, before the SID is moved to a new location.
The data from the temporary SID installed on Mount Pleasant in March showed 80 per cent of motorists were breaking the speed limit.
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