Forum topic: Community Road Watch

I note the concern about the extent of speeding by drivers in the locality.

The police in Enfield are undertaking a new joint initiative involving both the Metropolitan Police, Transport For London (TFL) and members of the Public.
The initiative is called Community Road Watch.

The main objective of the scheme is to reduce the speed of vehicles in a location which either has a history of collisions, or where a community concern has been raised.

Police Community Support Officers form the Enfield Safer Transport Team along with volunteers of the Public will be monitoring the speed of Vehicles at the selected location.

Volunteers will be using a speed gun to gauge their speed and the volunteers will be writing down details of the offending vehicles.

The registered keepers will then be sent letters regarding their speed/conduct.
Should the motorist be caught twice then another but stronger letter will be sent out to them. If they are caught three times, their details will be put on the Police Automatic Number Plate Reader (ANPR) Register, where they will be automatically flagged up to Police upon passing a camera.

It is a non-confrontational operation and the volunteers will remain on the footpath wearing High Viz Tops which we be provided

The attachment contains The Disclaimer which needs to be signed by Volunteers taking part, Volunteer Briefing, Expectations and Spread sheets.

I have been in touch PCSO Paul Mahoney who is looking forward to hearing from potential volunteers.

The most probable roads for action and enforcement are Bourne Hill, Hedge Lane and Aldermans Hill. Other locations can be considered. This is your chance to do something about it. Contact details below.

Best wishes

Paul Mandel

Contact Paul Mahoney PCSO 6827T
Roads Transport Policing Command
Edmonton Police Station 462 Fore Street Edmonton N9 0PW
Tel 020 8345 3390

(PS: Been unable to upload attachment)

The scheme was last run locally across several Wards in 2011. Many volunteers from RA’s and Neighbourhood Watch groups were trained over several hours in Ponders End by the Met’s specialist team based in South London. Roads that were covertly assessed and approved for Community Road Watch and then monitored included Aldermans Hill, The Bourne, Waterfall Road, Morton way, Fox Lane, Old Park Road, Burford Gardens and Caversham Avenue amongst others. But let’s not pretend it made any difference.

I believe the lessons from that experiment – slated to be a pilot for all London at the time - and the ongoing as well as the recent concentration of adverse traffic issues highlighted on this site suggest an alternate, and I believe much more robust, approach to this plague is required if we expect to see real change on our streets.

There may be limitations. But,we should make the effort, have an open mind and not be cynical.

There are different sorts of speeders. e.g.

Those who are extreme, willful and persistent and the purpose is to have the vehicle registration numbers logged on the police ANPR database so that they can be followed when the vehicle is logged onto a police in car system and/or monitored with other forms of surveillance. There is a good chance that some of those individuals are engaged in other unlawful activity which could come to light when a vehicle is stopped.

Then there may may be some rather undisciplined and casual drivers, who may otherwise be law abiding and need a need a wake up call. Their driving is potentially dangerous too. But, that letter, may make them more thoughtful.

Yesterday morning,a fairly ypical incident. I was out doing some IAM coaching (an unpaid volutntary activity), I was a passenger in a vehicle that was waiting at the lights heading northbound on the A10 junction with Carterhatch Lane. We were in lane 2 so as to be able to make headway against an HGV in lane 1, once the lights turned green. A licensed taxi pulled up beside us , immediately behind the HGV. Its driver on the phone. The lights turned green. My student pulled away and slotted back into lane 1 in front of the HGV we had passed. About 30 seconds later the cab speeded past us probably doing about 50 mpg in the 40.

So, Karl, you are right, a clever unmarked police patrol, could have done the double with this one. A fine and six penalty points on his license (3 for the phone use and 3 for speeding. The cabbie would be perilously close to losing his license and his livelihood for several months.

However, for decades, roads policing has not been a priority. But, If that taxi driver is so persistent in his behaviour that he continually ignores letters arising from a community road watch patrol, then he would be a targeted driver.

We are being offered some police resources to deal with a concern of many of us. Let's be positive about it.

Very happy to see viable actions. I spent many hours over many weeks across many streets along with a number of others supporting it last time so quite a few know the associated issues extremely well. Good luck with it.