Data shows level of speeding in Fenland town

The vast majority of drivers in a Fenland town are sticking to the speed limit or are only just over it according to new data.

March Town Council discussed the thorny issue of speeding in the town at its meeting last night.

The discussion follows on from a similar debate last month when councillors heard that despite the council-owned moveable vehicle activated speed signs (MAVS) being in operation no data has been produced for well over 18 months.

However, councillors heard the ‘glitch’ with the system – which turned out to be the wrong instructions manual being used – has been overcome and the mayor Gary Christy had now managed to download all the data.

In fact, he downloaded more than 500,000 readings.

He said that only 17.5% of people – well below a quarter of vehicles recorded – were found to be exceeding the speed limit – but the vast majority of those were registering between 30mph and 35mph in a 30mph zone.

Cllr Christy said there was a very small minority doing excess speeds with one driver clocked doing over 65mph.

However, the 17.5% figure for speeding was well below the national average.

At last month’s meeting members agreed there was a need for a targeted approach to tackle speeding and last night that view was endorsed.

Cllr Nigel ‘Spence’ Spencer questioned what happened with the figures once they were passed to the police.

He said there was no point in gathering data if the police were not going to act on it.

Cllr Christy said he would ask for clarification when he has his monthly meeting with the local policing team

The council is looking to buy permanent, possibly solar-powered, cameras to install at speeding hot spots to try to encourage people to cut their speed.

They could be bought as part of a Local Highways Improvement bid which would see some funding provided by Cambridgeshire County Council, but clerk Sarah Lemmon explained it might be better to buy the cameras directly from the suppliers themselves.

Cllr Christy said whatever the council decides about purchasing permanent cameras it was important to gather the necessary data first so decisions could be made on where they were properly needed.