Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
‘Speeders on esplanade heeding warning signs’
POLICE are winning the battle to put the brakes on speeders on a Kirkcaldy road, it has been claimed.
David Henderson, chairman of Kirkcaldy West Community Council, said new figures suggest drivers are heeding warnings on the town’s esplanade.
Figures show that from January 1 2016 to June 30 2017, a total of 61 fixed penalty notices were issued to speeding drivers on the route. Of those, an overwhelming majority were issued last year, with just nine given out in 2017.
“It is obviously good news and it is now a far cry from the days when the boy racers were tearing up and down the road,” said Mr Henderson.
“However, we have been told that most people are driving at excess speed around 1am. If that information is correct, then maybe it would be possible to target the road at that time as well.
“The current number of speeders is still not great, but it shows the police are having a calming influence on the road.”
Police safety camera teams are continuing to monitor the route, however, having been deployed on 17 occasions in the first six months of this year, in comparison with 36 throughout last year.
Over two decades the stretch of road has developed an unenviable reputation for attracting boy racers, with hundreds detected speeding and even racing along it.
Police have launched several initiatives over the years to target antisocial behaviour and speeding and while progress has been made, drivers continue to occasionally congregate in waterfront car parks.