Village bid to stop speeding drivers
A SPEED indication device (SID) has been installed in Woolton Hill as the parish council investigates speeding in the village.
The SID spent the first two weeks on Church Road and has now been moved to its second location on Trade Street on the other side of the parish field.
It will then go to two other locations before East Woodhay Parish Council sits down with the area’s police community support officer in early December to analyse the findings and decide what to do next.
The device – which cost the council £3,000 – only lights up at 27mph and above.
If drivers are doing 27 to 30mph, it will display the driver’s speed alongside a ‘thank you’ message, while at more than 30mph drivers will be told to slow down.
The lead councillor on the project, Martin Hainge, said the investigation was in a trial phase to establish whether there was a speeding problem in the village.
He said: “There’s a lot of people in the village that think there’s a speeding problem, therefore the
idea at the moment is more to find out the facts.
“Are they speeding and if so what speed?”
The SID is a high-tech device capable of recording the number of vehicles that go past it each day, as well as what speed it was doing – providing the council with a wealth of information and charts.
On the first two days following the SID’s installation, it showed that around 600 cars drive up Church Road every day – well above local residents’ estimates of 100 to 200.
Of all the cars, the top speed was 55mph and around 10 per cent were speeding.
Mr Hainge said he would be looking at the data for the last two weeks over the next couple of days.
He continued: “I do a lot of dog walking around here and we’re in a rural village with narrow roads and no pavements.
“I think a lot of people just ignore the 30 limit, so we’ve got to try and do something.
“I stood by it one time and there are people who fall into two categories.
“There are people who forget they’re in a 30 limit and see the sign and slow down, and there are others who don’t care because they’re not going to obey.
“Those are the people we want to catch.”