The not-so-fast and the furious villagers
Motorist criticises Dorset community team after their overzealous attempts to slow traffic in village
BEING caught speeding would usually involve the flash of a camera and a letter through the post demanding a fine.
But in Longburton, Dorset, volunteers armed with clipboards and a stern tone are menacing motorists suspected of breaking the speed limit and even accusing them of stealing their vehicles, according to one driver.
Phil Dewhurst, 40, said he was driving from his home in neighbouring Sherborne when three locals “bellowed” out his registration number and told him to slow down. The shouting was so loud, said Mr Dewhurst, that he could clearly hear it over the noise of his “old diesel Volvo and all the traffic with the windows shut”.
The professional musician stopped the car, and drove back to speak to the three volunteers, who were armed with a speed gun and high-vis jackets stamped with “Community Speed Watch”.
For the next 10 minutes, Mr Dewhurst says the two men and one woman scolded him “like I was a naughty schoolboy getting told off in the headmistress’s office”.
They claimed that he was travelling at 39mph, but Mr Dewhurst is adamant this is incorrect.
“I was doing 30mph, and my car’s speedometer has been calibrated properly, I know it’s accurate,” he said. “I was met with real aggression.”
The female member of the group leant into Mr Dewhurst’s car with her clipboard to tell him off, he claimed. One of the two men then suggested that Mr Dewhurst might not be the owner of his car.
“He said: ‘How do we know this is your car? You could have stolen it’,” Mr Dewhurst recalled. “I said: ‘Hold on a minute, I don’t appreciate that’. It left me quite shaken up.
“It was totally unnecessary and very unprofessional. I need to lodge a complaint because I felt like I was being bullied. I’m a confident and experienced driver but if you were younger or a more nervous driver having someone bellowing at you from the side of the road would be quite a distraction. The whole debacle was unnecessary.”
The three said they were working for the police, but refused to give their names or show any identification, according to Mr Dewhurst, whose registration number, name, address, and how fast he was allegedly driving were noted down. However, locals, who declined to identify the volunteers, backed the speed watch team’s efforts.
“It’s a quiet village with one main road so I can understand concerns for the houses and children living on that road,” said Vaughan Coleridge-matthews, a Sherborne town councillor.
He said he was aware of the speed watch teams on the road and always took particular care not to go over the limit in the village.
A Dorset Police spokesman said: “The Community Speed Watch team at Longburton has recently been set up and received training from a police community support officer last month.
“They have reported this incident to us through the proper channels and the group co-ordinator will be speaking to them to obtain further details of what took place.
“We are unable to comment any further at this time.”
‘I felt like I was being bullied, it was totally unnecessary’