Speeding fears in the spotlight
Concerns over new limits
We’ve been finding for most of the time people are coming through well above 20mph - ignoring it completely
Cllr Bob Brawn
Desperate residents are trying to wave down motorists speeding in parts of rural Perthshire, according to an elected member.
The remark was made by Councillor Bob Brawn during a recent meeting of Perth and Kinross Council’s housing and communities committee when the enforcement of new 20mph speed limits – which have been implemented across the region over the past year – was brought up.
Blairgowrie and Glens Conservative ward member Cllr Brawn, who chairs the committee, said most drivers were travelling well over that speed in the likes of Bridge of Cally and explained annoyed locals were potentially putting themselves in danger trying to wave traffic down.
His comments came after the latest quarterly report from Police Scotland for Perth and Kinross was issued on Monday last week.
Cllr Brawn said: “We’ve been finding for most of the time people are coming through well above 20mph – ignoring it completely.
“We have been fortunate and had the police here in Bridge of Cally several times but they seem to be more along the lines of [focusing on] education rather than enforcement.
“I’m just wondering, now these limits are in place, are we able to start enforcing the speed limits and for the police to actually issue penalty tickets rather than just educate because that doesn’t seem to be working?”
In response, Chief Inspector Andrew Todd said: “The 20mph speed limits are quite a challenge I think for all of us, not just within the police service.
“There are some clear Scottish Government guidelines around the introductions of 20mph limits and they are expected to be self-enforcing limits.
“The challenge we have as a service is 20mph limits are put up and then the responsibility to ensure that people observe them is passed to the police who have an enforcement responsibility.”
He said it was at officers’ discretion whether or not to issue speeding tickets.
CI Todd said: “I personally would not push towards a compulsory of everybody gets charged for breaking the 20mph limit.
“But what I would expect is if we have an individual who is perhaps carrying a hefty number of points for speeding, then we will send them to the courts who might take their licence off them – as opposed to giving them a warning as clearly they have been charged three times previously.”
CI Todd said he was speaking with the local area commanders in all three Tayside authorities around their approach to the 20mph limits.
He said they were also linking back with councils about what measures were put in place around introducing a new 20mph limit.
CI Todd said: “Before we introduce a 20mph limit there needs to be adherence to the Scottish Government guidelines of what that actually means.
“It’s not just a lowering of the 40 or 30mph limit and I’m not convinced all of my staff and all of the community recognise what follows these introductions.
“But our colleagues in road policing clearly are. They are very particular around their capability.
“And in regards to your own area, it is a priority route for them and they are up there all the time.”