‘It shocked me – we need to change this’
Bucks: Mum pushed for speedwatch after hit and run
A mother in Wooburn Green is ‘delighted’ to have finally set up a community speedwatch group for the village – after two years trying to tackle speeding on the roads.
Community speedwatches involve standing by the roadside with a speed gun in groups of two, to record the speeds of drivers going past.
Speeding drivers will not be prosecuted but will get a letter from the police instead – hoped to help educate drivers on the dangers of speeding.
Laura Barker of Wycombe Lane was galvanised into action after a hit-and-run on her husband and two-year-old son in their car in 2020.
“It was a big thing, it shocked me,” she said. “I thought: our son is going to grow up here. We’re
not going to move any time soon and we need to change this.
“Speeding vehicles and accidents both appear to have increased in the past two years. Drivers have no patience.”
Community speedwatch was not Laura’s first port of call. At first she was striving for traffic calming measures such as speed bumps to be put in place – but was unsuccessful.
Her contact to the local MP and councillors fetched supportive responses, though there have been no measures introduced yet.
Over time, Laura learned more about more problematic roads in the area – including Watery Lane, Boundary Road, Holtspur Lane and Town Lane ‘to name but a few.’
“I realised it’s a much wider issue,” she said.
Eventually Laura was signposted to community speedwatch and has since successfully set one up with help from Wooburn & Bourne End Parish Council.
Now she is looking for more volunteers to join the current team of six in the Wooburn Green Community Speedwatch Group.
“You don’t have to commit to an hour a week, it could be an hour a month – it’s really flexible,” she said.
To get involved in the Wooburn Green Community Speedwatch Group, email Laura at wooburngreencsw @gmail.com
To join a speedwatch group, volunteers must complete a 30minute online course to show they understand the rules of the speedwatch programme.
Those wishing to set up a community speedwatch can do so by visiting communityspeedwatch.org
Click ‘Register’ then ‘Join existing’ or ‘Create new group’. Select
‘Thames Valley’, then the county.
There are currently speedwatch groups in Boyn Hill, Bisham, Cookham, Waltham St Laurence, Marlow, Bourne End and Twyford.
For more information, email lee.turnham@thamesvalley .pnn.police.uk
Bucks council said it will be bringing forward a package of traffic calming measures along this stretch of Wycombe Lane and is ‘delighted’ to support the speedwatch initiative.