Radford Semele Parish Council are very much aware of the problem of motorists speeding through our village with the A425 (Southam Road) and Offchurch Lane being of particular concern.
During the course of the RSPC virtual meeting that took place during October 2020 it was agreed that we would investigate setting up our own Community Speed Watch (CSW) scheme. Community Speedwatch is a national initiative where proactive members of local communities join with the support and supervision of local police to record details of speeding vehicles using approved speed measuring devices (AKA “speed guns”).
Registered keepers of vehicles detected exceeding the speed limit are contacted – initially with a letter explain the potential risks and possible consequences of their dangerous behaviour. Repeat offenders will receive a visit from their local police (irrespective of where they live). Beyond these “friendly” gestures, enforcement and criminal prosecution follow based upon collated evidence.
Councillor Roger Munn agreed to undertake setting up our own village scheme and following requests published on social media and in the FoRGE newsletter, we have nine volunteers.
The CSW scheme was temporally suspended nationally due to Covid-19 but was restarted earlier in the year enabling our volunteers to receive individual training from our local Police Community Support Officer Ed King. In July this year, three of our volunteers received full training in the use of the approved LASER speed detection and measuring device in a half-day course organised by Warwickshire Police and thankfully, all three passed the course examination and are now certified to legally operate the device. We hope to have all our volunteers similarly trained by the end of the year.
Warwickshire police have a small number of the speed detection devices which they lend out to local groups in rotation but in order that we can organise ourselves more efficiently and effectively, the Parish Council approved the expenditure to purchase our own device for our exclusive use (of course we will also assist neighbouring groups from time to time if requested to do so). We took delivery of our LASER device a couple of weeks ago.
We also purchased Hi-Viz jackets overprinted with “Radford Semele Community Speed Monitoring for each individual volunteer and the police have provided us with similarly worded signage to advertise our presence and purpose. We are in the process of organising our first outing to take place in September so please do give the teams a friendly smile as you drive past (at 30 mph or less, of course).
If you have any queries, require further information (or wish to volunteer) – please contact Councillor Roger Munn on speedwatch@radfordsemelepc.org.uk and Roger will get back to you.