John Siddle (left), pictured with community speed watch police support volunteer for South Holland Jan Whitbourn and community speed watch co-ordinator for Lincolnshire Police Dave Mitchell at the scheme’s launch in June 2018. VRR050618-01

Drive to get speed scheme into Spalding

A scheme to stop people speeding in the villages could be on its way to Spalding.

Community Speed Watch, which sees trained volunteers monitor the speed of vehicles in problem locations, has been hailed as a success in many location in South Holland by its rural area co-ordinator Jan Whitbourn.

Now the Spalding Town Forum wants to bring the scheme to the town and its members say they already have volunteers ready to begin training.

Coun Jack McLean, who chairs the forum, said: “We are extremely keen to introduce this scheme to the area.

“We were reassured that there are volunteers ready to go and the budget would not be too substantial.

“As it stands there are options for us to start this as the town forum and we are looking forward to progressing with them once we have ironed out the details.

“When we have the necessary information in front of us we will be able to make a decision as to how we approach doing this.”

Community Speed Watch works through volunteers who then receive considerable training in using the speed guns and associated equipment.

Three at a time will be able to take readings in their respective areas at places designated by the Community Speed Watch team.

The data recorded by the guns leads to up to two warning letters being sent out to those found breaking the speed limit.

Any drivers found to have been speeding three times are more are passed on to Lincolnshire Police.

On Tuesday the newest set of volunteers took to the streets of Pinchbeck to monitor speed in that village for the first time.

Jan says a new group in Gedney is also set to launch soon and a successful meeting of new volunteers was well attended on Monday night.

She said: “We’ve always said that we’d love for Community Speed Watch to come to Spalding and it’s great to be working with the Town Forum to attempt to make it happen.

“The scheme works through parish councils who purchase the equipment and who also have public liability insurance which covers the volunteers who go out and do the monitoring.

“That’s an issue we have to work around with Spalding not having a town council, but I’m sure working with Spalding Town Forum we can work around that.

“The scheme is making a massive difference.

“Only a very small percentage of drivers found speeding have had to be sent a letter and we’ve not had to send a third letter yet.

“People can see these volunteers making a difference to their communities and it would be great to see that in Spalding.”

Coun McLean is also holding a public meeting to tackle “speeding and persistant obstructions in Winsover Road and Pennygate.

The meeting is at Tonic Health on February 6 at 5pm.

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