An Isle of Wight councillor has called on Hampshire Constabulary to re-introduce a dedicated Roads Policing Unit on the Isle of Wight to tackle what he says is an Island-wide speeding problem.
To try and sort out out the ‘horrendous’ speeding issue on the Island, the Isle of Wight Council had previously put £300,000 aside in this year’s budget to buy 2 sets of average speed cameras. However, the Conservatives lost control of County Hall at May’s election so party leader Councillor Steve Hastings has urged the authority’s new cabinet members to continue with the purchase of the cameras.
Instead, they voted to amend the motion at a meeting earlier this week.
The Alliance group agreed to continue to develop a business case to investigate the costs and effectiveness of the cameras, but did not agree to go ahead and spend £300,000 straight away.
Councillor Ian Dore, who represents Binstead, said he was not convinced the mobile cameras would be a solution and it was only through cuts that the Island did not have a dedicated police road traffic unit. He said he applauded the move to investigate cameras, saying speeding was clearly an Island-wide problem and more needed to be done to address it — starting with speedwatch campaigns. But he also said speaking to Hampshire Constabulary to see what could be done to bring back the dedicated road policing unit (RPU) would be a good move.
In years gone by the Isle of Wight had a dedicated RPU based out of Shanklin Police Station. The team, consisting of specially trained and dedicated roads policing officers, had at their disposal 2x BMW X5s, an unmarked Skoda and 2 motorcycles, with responsibility for road crime, road safety and responding to road traffic collisions.
It was in February 2015 that Island Echo exclusively revealed plans to shelve the unit, with officers being put onto normal bobby duties. Fast forward 6 years and the Island’s roads policing is conducted by the Armed Response team, whose primary responsibility is providing firearms cover across the Isle of Wight. It’s noted that a lot of recent court cases, in which drink and drug drivers have appeared before Magistrates, have come about after normal response and patrol officers stumbled across the driver by chance.
Councillor Vanessa Churchman said it was alright if speed limit signs were in place, but if you could not enforce that, it would be a waste of time. She said the cameras would be effective as a traffic deterrent, ‘frightening people into obeying the law’.
Responding to Councillor Dore’s comments, Hampshire Constabulary says it will continue to review the operating model in light of social changes, and changes in demand along with resourcing capabilities. A spokesperson for the force has added:
“We are committed to ensuring our roads are safe for motorists on the Isle of Wight, and we have a dedicated team of dual-skilled roads policing and armed response officers (RP/ARV) who support this commitment. This combination of skills has been brought together in order to balance the efficiency of our teams against the level of demand – which is different on the Isle of Wight; the absence of motorways, for example, plays a part in this.
“The skills and equipment of the team enable us to deal with the road policing needs of the Island, including dealing with roadside offences and collisions, making scenes safe, and breathalysing or drug testing drivers. In addition, we are regularly looking at ways in which we can improve this service.
“The RP/ARV also undertake some fantastic proactive work to target illegal use of our roads, and this will continue. This has involved recent targeting of speeding hotspots on the Isle of Wight, such as the Military Road, and working alongside other agencies including the DVLA to conduct dedicated operations seizing vehicles that are not roadworthy, or do not have insurance or tax. These joint operations also result in drivers being stopped and prosecuted for drink and drug driving.
“The RP/ARV is regularly joined by mainland roads policing officers for operations and days of action. For example, last summer, the teams joined forces over the course of a weekend in response to reports of speeding in the West Wight area. This particular operation alone resulted in 52 tickets being issued to motorists for offences including speeding, and driving with vehicle defects.
“Earlier this year, the Roads Policing Proactive Team joined RP/ARV officers as part of another road safety operation. They arrested 5 individuals under the Road Traffic Act for drug drive offences, one individual for being concerned in the supply of drugs as well as carrying out 5 stop searches. They also seized 6 vehicles for having no insurance or no licence, and issued a driver with a ticket for using a mobile phone behind the wheel. During this time, the teams were also involved in two fail to stop pursuits and supported other teams with making a priority arrest.
“Policing the roads is as much about education as it is about enforcement. During the West Wight operation, officers engaged with a number of local motorcycle groups to discuss safe use of the roads, following concerns raised about motorcycles driving dangerously in the area.
“The RP/ARV team are also involved annually in the Christmas drink and drug drive campaign – known as Operation Holly – as well as summer drink drive crackdowns. They are committed to supporting all of our Fatal Four campaigns which tackle dangerous driving behaviours such as speeding, drink/drug driving, using a mobile phone whilst driving, and driving without a seatbelt, through a combination of enforcement and education”.
As part of the approved motion (1 vote against and 1 abstention), the neighbourhoods and regeneration policy and scrutiny committee will advise on the effectiveness of the cameras.
all need to take a driving test
Police can rattle on about how much they are doing, or have done, but it’s obviously not enough. Town centre speed is also an issue. Try walking on the narrow pavement in Church Litten, everyone racing to the next junction or traffic lights.
no they aren’t – i have been in church litten regularly – not seen any speeding – just sensible driving at a sensible pace, rather than some inconsiderate driver chugging along at two miles an hour.
Not seen anything? Were you too busy speeding?
Just blanket the islands faster roads “Military Road” and all the roads where the idiots like to drive quickly and illegally with a 40 zone. Make the island “A maximum 40 zone” We are a small island and nothing is that far away really is it.
What a stupid suggestion. Need to ban people from making ridiculous comments. Awareness and concentration are as much of a problem as speeding, people seem to think talking to a passanger, changing radio stations or playing on there phone is okay but 2mph over the limit is not? You can have a crash @ 10mph if your not looking at what your doing! People need to be more aware thats the problem!
Stupid suggestion again from sir
What happens then to the ‘island driver’ should they ever venture to the mainland with their higher limits? Perhaps another driving test to show they can handle faster roads before being allowed to travel? !
Just what the Nimbys want
What happened to all the speed cameras, I’m sure these worked on the speeding youngsters.
Whilst being aware that the fixed cameras which used to be at lake/shanklin were not working, they always seemed to keep the speeds down? visitors wouldnt know, and you always had a “just in case” bit of doubt. I noticed as soon as they went, speeds on those roads went up by 5/10mph. perhaps they should have been left in place?
No good for speeding bikes though are they….
I think you’ll find ‘youngsters’ are the minority when it comes to speeding.
‘horrendous’ speeding issue. No, the Island is no different to anywhere in the UK. The problem is people driving beyond the vehicle and their capabilities.
Top problems tailgating in 30mph zones trying to force the car in front to go faster, cutting corners on bends in road, the white line huggers, not giving way to oncoming traffic, jumping red lights, not slowing down at mini roundabouts, parking on bends in road, parking on pavements, driving through housing estate where 20mph really is plenty and none of these involve excessive speed just poor driving skills and average speed cameras won’t solve any of that.
With no working speed cameras and very few visible police vehicle patrols, it is no wonder that a large number of irresponsible drivers assume that they can get away with ignoring the various speed limits and it is a small step for them to additionally assume that they can get away with driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. What does get reported is only the tip of the iceberg. One thing often overlooked by the pro-speeding numpties (who should be ashamed of themselves) is the degree to which the chances of a pedestrian being killed by being hit by a vehicle increase exponentially above the designated speed limit.
Exactly.. Every time I see a speeding car in my area I worry for my kids!!
I played in the street everyday as a kid and guess what – I used my ears/eyes and could hear/see a car coming, so could my friends and we moved out of the way – we also had parents that taught us the green cross code and taught us about pavements and where we should be.
lo and behold, none of us ever got hit by a car, no matter how fast it was going.
pedestrians need to take responsibility for themselves instead of expecting others to do it for them.
Wow your one nasty individual aren’t you… Build a time machine, go back to the 1940’s and run a prison camp in Germany.
The clue would have been the man with the red flag, I guess.
The people that drive their cars at speed at every chance think they can handle it.. they can’t! they are not trained in racing.. they go over the white lines, they hit curbs, hit lamp posts trees, smash into other cars, they roll them.. and they can hit people. Yes you teach your kids how to cross a road safely but do drivers get taught how to drive at 90 in a 30mph speed limit? No!
They’re just showing off! Fur coat no knickers most of the time.
Spot on. Sadly the morons who think speeding and tailgating, illegal number plates and aggressive driving is acceptable will not know what exponential means !!
A** for Councillor Dore. Keep at it. You are a breath of fresh air for common sense.
Surely if the police communicated with the locals of each town and asked them where the hot spots are they could put something in place? The locals all know where the offenders put their foot down! The usual speed traps are well know and too obvious!
Think I’ve mentioned that before?
Glad that at least one councillor is speaking out. One is better than none.
There should be a joined up ‘Isle of Wight Anti-speeding and road safety Strategy’ from the Council, Police and Island Roads not just some ad hoc decisions on cameras. Shameful.
Doesn’t handing out 52 tickets over a weekend tell the police there is a serious problem. And what about East Wight – come and visit the Le Mans circuit in Ryde.
Most of the points made in this report are spot on. RPU gone, speed cameras gone and there is little or no consequential risk to those deciding to drive well beyond the speed limit, disrespecting the Islands towns and villages. It is probably only down to the awareness of other sensible drivers that even more accidents have been avoided. Cameras aren’t the complete answer but speed humps in known residential hotspots will also help.
The one thing that doesn’t get enough focus is people pulling out at junctions when it’s not safe to do so and/or drivers going too fast to react to to people pulling out. Many accidents are caused by this and they crop up again at the same junctions/areas.
Yes it’s poor driving, but small things could be done to improve visibility and awareness in many places, but as far as I know, nothing gets done unless there is a major investigation.
Whilst speeding is obviously wrong is it the main reason behind killed or serious injury (KSI) road traffic incidents? It’s anti-social and potentially deadly but most news reports on the island seem to reflect the propensity of drink-drive, drug-drive offending rather than speed.
Absolutely something needs to be done to stop the speeders on the island. Bring back the Policing unit to patrol the roads and catch some of these idiots.
Speeding an island problem and they want to bring in motorcycle racing at 200mph. Crazy:!-
Liz, I think they’ll be closing the roads for this !
Lushington Hill is like a race track at Night
One long road with absolutely no traffic calming measures.
And to top it off just before a busy junction and a major roundabout the speed limit increases to 50 !!!
You couldn’t make it up
guess you haven’t driven on motorways that feed in to large cities where the limits on approach to busy junctions /roundabouts are 50 and then back up to full motorway speeds after exiting.
They halved the police a few years ago. Don’t take a big brain to see what has resulted.
Simple solution is to educate people to drive at the right speed in the right place and obey the rules of the road. However when they break these rules over and over again the penalty is too small. I know of one case of a multiple driver without insurance, licence who just keeps on driving anyhow, gets a few weeks in jail comes out and does the same, worse still the cars he drives he steals for the fun of it. Just because there is a speed limit won’t stop those that have a disregard for the rules be it 20mph or 60mph
Well done, Ian Dore. And well done to our underfunded Police. But what we really need to deter all kinds of misbehaviour on our Island is for PROPER MEANINGFULL SENTENCING FROM THE COURTS. ‘Slaps on the wrist’ are merely encouragement! It’s the courts that are failing to protect us from the drunks, drug takers and suppliers, and all the other morons on the road.