Following our theme of
inter-parish collaboration, we have asked to hear from parishes
about some of their projects which may be of interest or relevant
to other parishes. This time;
Minutes:
Whiteparish Skatepark
Due to the reschedule of the Area Board date coinciding with the Whiteparish Parish Council meeting, they were unable to attend to present. This update would be rescheduled for a future date.
Landford/Whiteparish SID project
John Fairhurst & Ken Parker from Landford PC.
We first installed the device in November. Since then we have had positive feedback, including one mother who told us that her child asks her to drive slowly so that they could bring up the smiley face.
The location we use is the same location we do one of the Speedwatch sessions with the CSW team. The unit weighs 10kg and batteries weigh 10kg. The device is secured with a padlock.
These units will record 200m out, however we set ours to 10m and 20m. Each time we install the device we do a test to see it is functioning correctly and a passing vehicle test.
Our device has Bluetooth, so you can use a mobile phone to run a diagnostic and take the data down.
We believed that it would work with two villages sharing the cost of a device. We operate on a 3 week on and 3 weeks off schedule.
We are learning what we can do with this device, and sharing best practice with other villages.
Data shows the average speed of the cars in a 30 minute interval. Data has shown that some people in Landford are travelling at 68mph in a 30mph area, close to a primary school.
The volume of traffic in Landford is 53k vehicles in a 3 week period. At 3pm in the afternoon we have recorded vehicles travelling at 86mph.
The Area Board gave us one third of the project cost.
I have produced an educational video I am happy to share with anyone interested.
Questions:
· Cllr Devine - The A36 is one of the most heavily policed roads, I am surprised at the speeds recorded there.
· Do you think having the device has had any impact on reducing the overall speed? Answer: Absolutely. I Have seen the cars come in and drop their speed. The majority of people are slowing down, I find this very encouraging.
· Is there a logic that says you need a device at each end of the village? Answer: The answer is yes. Our device is moveable, these things work best if they can move around. We will move ours around the village.
· Elaine Hartford – Can you forward your powerpoint and video to me? Answer: We are still learning what we can do with the info and how best to share it.
· You have evidence on people who are regular offenders. Could the Police not act on this? Answer: Police – Certainly, as a Roads Policing Officer for most of my career, we have to look at diverse options to catch the offenders. Enforcement does impact on people’s lives, just as speeding does. It is difficult to commit resources to something that could happen, rather than is happening.
We had a resident report that she regularly saw someone on the school run who was speeding, so we arranged the CSW at the school run time and sure enough we clocked her. We went to the local Beat Officer and working together they were able to stop the culprit and give her a fixed penalty notice.
Chairman – this is a brilliant example of interparish collaboration, hopefully others can get together to take this project on.