Average speed cameras are to be trialled in parts of Cheshire with a view to parish councils possibly funding them in future to crackdown on speeders, writes Belinda Ryan.
Three trial sites will be set up across the county in the next few weeks – and in Cheshire East the cameras will be located in Plumley.
Police and Crime Commissioner John Dwyer said the move was in response to the number of complaints he received from parish councils about speeding in their villages.
He told the Cheshire East Council scrutiny committee said: “We’re trying out in autumn now three trial sites across the county and one of them’s here in Cheshire East, where we’re trying out average speed cameras in a parish to see whether in fact that does impact on behaviour of drivers in that area. I believe it will.
“So once that’s been proven, then we will be going to through Chalc (Cheshire Association of Local Councils), speaking to all parish councils, saying consider this in your area provided that the criteria for the road are met.
“Then we need to think about how you can actually afford, as a parish council, to install these devices in your area to help road safety.”
Cllr Rachel Bailey (Audlem, Con) said some parish councils would not be able to fund such a scheme.
“It sounds great, but we have some very small parish councils and currently these parish councils are being asked, for example by Cheshire East, to pay for highway maintenance, to pay for gulley-emptying – it’s called a top up scheme so and some are also being asked to pay for gritting,” said Cllr Bailey.
“So at some point these parish councils are going to topple if there isn’t closer engagement between yourself and the council with just how much we can expect some of them to do.”
Mr Dwyer said said parish councils, unlike borough councils and the police commissioner’s office, are able to raise their precept by whatever amount they want.
“There’s no limit on it,” he said, adding: “We know that they’ve got to be realistic in what they do.”
He said some parishes would be too small and may not wish to take part in the average speed camera initiative anyway.
He added he was aware of two parish councils which are trying to do something together where there is adjoining road – with one camera in one parish and the second camera in the other.
You would think that but as someone who drives a car which includes this technology in its current state it isn’t accurate enough to mandate in all cars (and of course is impossible to retrofit into someone’s rusty 1986 Volvo estate).
Probably bigger problems to focus on currently, such as the actual state of the roads, most are little more than farm tracks these days, but if you can squeeze a little more money out of the motorist then why not, hope you are going to include electric bikes and scooters in your plan, oh I forget they don’t pay tax , insurance or registered for road use so we will ignore that problem shall we.
You would think by now technology on cars could be set to match the drivers speed with the road speed permitted but is that too sensible? The best thing I saw in Scotland was a road camera in a 20 zone that if passed at a higher speed would turn all the approaching traffic lights to red, genius idea