In a bid to stop large numbers of motorists flouting the speed limit

Community Roadwatch in action in the borough

Ealing Council has promised Community Watch Volunteers who have been surveying motorists disregarding the 20mph speed limit, that it will improve the signage on roads most affected. The most recent survey found more than 3,000 or 20 per cent of motorists surveyed, were driving over 20 mph. The worst was Southfield Road, at 30 per cent of motorists.

The Council is to improve signage on the section of Southfield Road between St George's Road and Acton Lane by installing some larger 20mph lamp post signs, and painting 20mph roundels on the road surface.

However CWV say it remains to be seen how effective these will be at reminding drivers to keep within the speed limit, but they will continue sessions to monitor the situation.

The next step is to persuade the Council to make similar improvements to the signage on all the main roads through the Ward. For instance, currently, a driver travelling East and then South along Southfield Road and The Avenue will not see another 20mph reminder sign on his side of the road once he has passed the 20mph sign opposite St Peter's Church until he nearly reaches Bedford Corner at the junction with South Parade - a very considerable distance!

Chris Carrington of CRV says: "Since we started doing CRW in Southfield in May 2017, our dedicated team of volunteers have spent 83 hours monitoring the speed of traffic on our roads. They have recorded 3197 vehicles doing 25mph or more in the 20mph zone. That means, an average, that 21% of drivers, or about 76 vehicles per hour, are disregarding the speed limit by a significant amount. On some individual roads the situation is much worse: on Bollo Lane the average is 26%, on The Avenue it is 25%, and on Southfield Road it is 31%.

As the speed checks are only made on vehicles travelling in one direction on a road, the number of speeding vehicles can be doubled to give the number of vehicles per hour doing 25mph or more on any given road.

"Since July, several more people have stepped forward to join the CRW team. This has brought the total number of volunteers to more than 20. I would like to thank all the volunteers, old and new, for giving up their time to help make the roads in Southfield safer for all residents, and a special thanks goes to PC George Gase who accompanies us on all our sessions."

The scheme is not an enforcement exercise, rather it is intended to alert and educate drivers to the existence of speed limits, and to improve road safety by encouraging motorists to reduce their speed in residential areas. The community volunteers record the details of vehicles travelling at 25mph or more, but no attempt is made to stop the vehicles, or signal drivers to slow down.

The registered keeper of each speeding vehicle will receive a warning letter from the police. If caught again, a second letter will sent to the registered keeper warning that if caught a third time the vehicle will be added to police Automatic Number Plate Recognition (APNR) system.

Any vehicle caught speeding on 3 or more occasions will be considered to targeted enforcement (fines and points), but this will not be part of the CRW activity.

October 10, 2018