LETTER: Film drivers to ensure they stick to speed limits

I live in Earby and there is a 20mph limit that starts on Victoria Road, goes past my house on the junction of Stony Bank Road with Water Street, then up the hill for some distance on Stony Bank Road, where there is a flashing sign at the start of it as a warning.

The speed of almost every driver whizzing past my house and on up the hill, or going the other way into Victoria Road, is almost always way more than 20mph.

There are some speed bumps further up the road but they don't seem to make any difference to the speed the drivers are doing.

As a driver for many years I always stick to speed limits, whatever they are as I don't want to be caught by the police for speeding and having points on my licence. Often when I'm in a 30 mph limit other drivers will be very close to the back of my car and will overtake at times, driving much faster than 30mph.

In the 20mph limits it's just the same. If the limits are going to work then there should be some way of filming drivers as proof of their speed, as nowadays probably due to costs, there are rarely ever any local police around to check. There are certain well-known roads which sometimes have police vans in place (such as Beamsley Hill) but in village roads, like the one here in Earby, I've not seen any. There are many people walking in this area, parents and children going to the school, dog walkers, people going to the shops and although there are pavements on both sides of the road, there are no legal crossings of any sort on the whole of the 20mph road, despite some of the side roads having the lowered marked pavement edges for prams or wheelchairs. Nothing to make cars slow down or stop to allow people to cross the road.

The theory of trying to get drivers to slow down is good. In practice, unless in towns with CCTV, the limit will make very little difference.

I see proof of this here in Earby every day.

Tessa Bird

Earby