WESTBURY Town Council are considering implementing an Automated Community Speed Watch system (ASW) to tackle speeding in hotspots in the town. Cllr Gordon King has called for an automated system after the community speed watch has failed to secure volunteers due to intimidation from speeding motorists.
At a recent meeting of the highways, planning and development (HP&D) committee of Westbury Town Council, councillors agreed to write to the Wiltshire police and crime commissioner, Philip Wilkinson, to request he sanctions the use of ASW. Currently the commissioner does not support ASW due to motorists’ data protection, but councillors have said that if he can be convinced that the data goes straight to the police and nowhere else, the move can be approved.
ASW would replace the current community speed watch – which is not operating at the moment due to lack of volunteers. The cost of the ASW system would be £539. The locations that are currently under community speed watch in town are: Chalford, Leigh Park Way, The Mead (East and West of Gloucester Road), Warminster Road, Bratton Road (West of Bitham Park), and Oldfield Road (West of Bridge Court).
Speaking at the HP&D meeting, cllr Gordon King said, “Currently, we have community speed watch areas in agreed locations within Westbury – of which no volunteers actually volunteer. And the reason for this is because of the constant intimidation by motorists, which is a shame really. But I fear that we will never get to grips with speeding in Westbury and holding people to account for their speeding in the town unless we start doing things like ASW.”
Cllr Ward Jones added, “I totally support Gordon’s suggestion to write to the commissioner. I’m aware of all the problems we’ve had on Slag Lane. This is certainly a much more sophisticated way of tackling the problem.”
ASW does not issue fines or directly penalise a speeding motorist, but rather acts as a community volunteer itself, by collecting data and supplying this directly to the police. According to the ASW website, the system, ‘improves police efficiency and reduces resources required, allows targeted prioritised traffic enforcement measures and its very presence deters speeding and reduces the scale of the problem.’
ASW also distinguishes between vehicles that are persistently or particularly fast and those that have made an occasional mistake. This allows the police to prioritise their resources against the worst drivers. The system is solar powered however and will not operate in low light levels or at night.
Cllr King explained why Westbury needs AutoSpeedWatch saying, “I would like to emphasise that in the most cases the overwhelming majority of drivers are observing the minimum speed limit and driving safely, but in these eight locations, the average speed is sufficiently above the mean average to warrant speed watch and Auto-SpeedWatch, once approved, will only be deployed in official speed watch locations.
“The sad fact remains that in the early morning and in the quiet time in the evenings, some drivers are taking advantage and speeding and as things stand, we cannot recruit the necessary volunteers to hold these drivers to account. As a result, our neighbourhoods continue to experiencing speeding traffic and there is effectively little we can do about it. AutoSpeedWatch will replace the need for the human volunteer and provide a better report of speeding than is currently available.
“It is up to the Police and Crime Commissioner to do something about the situation, approve AutoSpeedWatch and accept the reports as evidence. The ball is absolutely in his court. He has launched a consultation for an increased budget on a ticket that includes action on speeding. We say give us Auto-SpeedWatch.”
