Parish councillors operate speed guns

Parish councillors are to be kitted out with a £1,700 speed gun in a pilot study to empower communities to tackle foot-to-the-floor-motorists.

Speeding drivers may also find themselves confronted by relatives of road crash victims as part of a hard-hitting strategy from Cumbria Constabulary to reduce by 40 per cent the number of people killed or seriously injured in road accidents by 2010.

The scheme covers 16 initiatives, ranging from routine drink-drive campaigns to more novel plans including:

l Working with national accident charity BRAKE to take volunteers who have been bereaved by a road crash to speeding hotspots in order to shock drivers into taking more care behind the wheel.

l Impounding the cars of motorists caught driving dangerously.

l Producing a report on improving safety along the A590, in conjunction with highway contractors Amey Mouchel.

Police met Arnside Parish Council last night to discuss the details of one of the flagship trials to lend civilians speed guns. The council had inspired police to invest in the kit after spotting a report in specialist magazine Local Council Review about a similar initiative by Kent Constabulary one of at least two forces to use the scheme nationally.

Chief Inspector for South Lakeland Martin Connolly said volunteers would be trained to handle the guns and then left to clock speeding drivers with the device, writing down the number plates of speeding vehicles which would then be passed to police. For a first offence, a driver would receive a warning letter, a second offence would prompt another, more strongly worded note and police would be mobilised to monitor the person's driving. If caught speeding again by police, the driver would be prosecuted.

"The benefits are for everybody. The community feels it is doing something positive about speed and the driver has a chance to modify their behaviour," said Chief Insp Connolly.

Police spokesman Mike Smith believed there was no danger of speed-gun toting civilians abusing their powers since their readings alone could not prompt a prosecution. He saw it as a means for communities to deter speeding motorists and as a way to provide police with accurate information to tackle local hotspots.

Arnside Parish Council chairman David Willacy thought the gun would help slow down motorists in key areas like Black Dyke Road and the seaside resort's promenade. "In Arnside roughly 50 per cent of the population are over 60, they are obviously not going to be too good on their feet," he said. "For someone to come zooming along the promenade is dangerous. At the end of the day if you are doing 40mph in a 30mph zone you are only going to get to your destination seconds earlier.

"We are not out for prosecution or persecuting people, we just want people to see reason we want them to adhere to the speed limit."

The police strategy to reduce road collisions has pulled together the force's activities to meet Government targets to see a 40 per cent drop in road deaths and injuries by 2010 from 1997 levels and a 50 per cent drop in child deaths and injuries. Cumbria has proportionately one of the worst records for road deaths in the country and is out to cut the numbers killed and injured from 173 last year to 118.

Their efforts will be getting a massive legislative boost next month as Cumbria police begin to use new powers under the Police Reform Act. Under s59 police will be able to impound vehicles from motorists caught flouting the law, particularly by dangerous driving. Vehicles will be retrievable later only on payment of a £120 recovery fee.

Chief Insp Connolly said he expected the threat of taking a driver's car or bike would prove to be a powerful means to persuade them to change their ways.

"We don't want to go round doing lots of enforcement on people particularly on targeted groups like boy racers if they can modify their behaviour through the possibility of enforcement," he said.

April 25, 2003 09:31