Volunteers from the Community Speedwatch team were out on Ryleys Lane between 7.30am and 8.30am on Tuesday, 3rd of July.
They had one of their busiest sessions to date, recording 56 vehicles exceeding the speed threshold - that's one vehicle every 64 seconds.
Councillor Craig Browne said "It is worth noting that although vehicles were only recorded if they were travelling over 30mph, this section of Ryleys Lane is within a School Safety Zone where the speed limit is supposed to be 20mph at this time of day."
In total 33 vehicles were recorded travelling between 36 and 39mph and 23 vehicles were recorded travelling in excess of 40mph.
The highest recorded speed on this occasion was 49mph and the average speed of all recorded vehicles was 40mph.
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
We have a very real problem here that is not being dealt with and I it's just a matter of time before a terrible accident occurs. At the weekend people are often crossing the road, sometimes a bit worse for wear, in Wilmslow and Alderley. It's a terrifying recipe for disaster. We need a major police crack down before carnage occurs. It has got to the stage where there is a serious and immediate risk to life.
What is the follow up to the Community Speedwatch efforts, do their results get passed to the police for any further action, and if so, what is the next step?. I agree that weekends are particularly attractive for the idiots who treat our village as a showcase for their high performance vehicles.
Volunteers use hand-held devices that tell them the speed at which drivers are travelling through their ‘patch’. When a driver is going a set amount above the speed limit – typically around 10% – the vehicle’s registration, make, model and colour are recorded.
What happens to the details then?
A spreadsheet of the offenders’ details is then passed to the local police force, who are likely to also add them to a national database.
Will the driver get a ticket?
These schemes are predominantly about education, meaning no speeding tickets will be issued. Additionally, most schemes use equipment that is not of the correct specification, so issuing a penalty would not be possible on a legal issue"
To answer your question, the volunteers note down the time, speed, make and model of each vehicle that is found to be travelling above the speed threshold (modern devices are extremely accurate; however a small margin of error is allowed, to answer Jon’s point). The information is then passed on to the police, who process it and issue letters to the drivers for a first offence, or arrange a home visit for second or subsequent offences.
As volunteers, we are not able to issue penalty notices; however, the statistics from each Speedwatch session help to highlight particular hotspot areas to the police, who then target those areas. If you follow our PCSO on facebook or twitter, you will see that she has been very active in Alderley Edge recently. The sessions also help us to gather evidence, which can then be presented to CE Highways to support requests for traffic calming.
This year, the Parish Council will be purchasing two interactive speed signs (in fact the first of them is due to arrive within the next few days) and we use the information gained during the Speedwatch sessions, to help decide at which points around the village the signs should be located. By giving of their time, the volunteers also help to raise awareness of speed as an issue and act as a reminder to drivers to check their speed.
Kind regards,
Craig