Speeding in Sussex and the South East.

Sussex police have been criticised this year for allowing foreign vehicles to exceed the speed limit without any penalty. Around 1 in 7 speeding foreign vehicles receive a fine, but the police have been unable to confirm if any of the fines were paid. The police have blamed these failings and massive loss of revenue (over £80,000) on lack of cooperation between countries and the fact that foreign plates do not show up on the DVLA database, making locating the owner of the vehicle much more difficult and time consuming. There is a similar issue with parking tickets being issued to foreign vehicles. However the story is very different for UK drivers who can expect a fine in the post for definite. Speeding foreign vehicles pose a dangerous threat to other road users and the problem will continue as long as this lack of effort and cooperation continues.

Earlier this year Sussex police were made to apologise and refund fines to around 200 people when they were found to be using unauthorised camera equipment. While obviously this is not permitted, the fact is that the device found these 200 people to be speeding, but they have avoided punishment because of bureaucracy. Again the focus doesn’t seem to be on the issue of road safety.

East Sussex County Council, like many councils across the south east have plans and schemes in place to tackle the issue of speeding and road safety. East Sussex promote community speed watch schemes and they fund laser speed guns. They provide mobile and static speed indication devices which warn drivers when they are exceeding the speed limit. They have reduced the speed limit in many villages from 40 to 30 and they are also promoting road safety in schools. Regularly school children can be seen on the high street with laser speed guns and local police officers learning about road safety and checking the speed of the local residents. Speeding is still a problem in many areas, and will schools programmes help the issue in the future?

Speed Cameras: People become accustomed to where cameras are situated and so drive slowly only where they know they may be caught. This has led to many cameras being put out of action (for example on the M20 in Kent) in favour of mobile devices. However many drivers rarely see these mobile devices – so are they really making a difference?

Novel Tactics: February 2010 saw the beginning of a new tactic to tackle speeding in Kent. Brenchly Parish councillors will confront reckless drivers after they have been stopped by police. But will such humiliating tactics improve the problem of speeding in the area and will similar methods be used elsewhere?