Full News Report
18th November 2024
One in five cars exceeds Widegates speed limit
RESULTS from recent Community Speedwatch sessions reveal that too many motorists are still ignoring the 30-mph speed limit through Widegates village.
With the new children’s play area at Farriers Way likely to be in place by the end of the year Morval Parish Council is calling for more traffic calming measures to be introduced – and data from the Speedwatch volunteers is backing up councillors’ concerns.
During an hour session last month 20.6 per cent of vehicles were travelling above the speed limit on the Morval to Hessenford road through the village with a top speed of 44-mph.
The figures for cars travelling in the opposite direction (Hessenford to Morval) for the same period show that 22.5 per cent of motorists were ignoring the speed limit with one travelling at 45-mph.
Other sessions have detected between 10.57 and 27 per cent of all vehicles breaking the 30-mph legal limit, with a top speed of 54-mph.
On reviewing the recent data, Devon and Cornwall Police arranged for the speed enforcement van to visit the village – and have said that they will return on other occasions.
Community Speedwatch volunteers record vehicle speeds in 20, 30 and 40-mph zones and, using that information, can bring extra pressure on the authorities to agree to more road safety initiatives.
These Speedwatch sessions cannot issue fines but details of excessive speeding are passed on to the police who then write to errant drivers, explaining the potential consequences of their behaviour and encouraging them to be more speed aware.
A number of people have expressed the opinion that the Speedwatch camera sessions should be more covert (i.e the operators not being so visible in their high-viz uniforms) but the principal function of the programme is speed awareness… making motorists aware of their speeds in restricted zones and, hopefully, correcting their errors.
On occasions, though, the Speedwatch volunteers are joined by full-time police operatives who can, and do impose fines.
The search continues for more volunteers to join the Community Speedwatch programme and anyone interested should contact Morval Parish Council clerk, Laura Storey (clerk@morvalparishcouncil.org.uk) or the area organiser Derris Watson on 07817 180 203
