Volunteers in speed watch

DRIVERS speeding through the centre of Takeley will be a thing of the past as a year

long observation project comes to an end.

Ten volunteers including parish councillors were trained in operating a hand-held speed camera from May 31 and since then they have given up time to highlight to police speeding 'hotspots' in the village.

Takeley Parish Council and Hatfield Broad Oak Parish Council have been sharing a camera to collate evidence for the project since January last year.

Takeley Parish Council clerk Jane Heskey said: "After raising the issue of speeding in our village with police we were advised to carry out our own survey to pin point exact problem areas."

Results have shown that the village has three notable problem areas, Parsonage Road, Four Ashes Corner, and Takeley Street.

Police have now acted on the evidence gathered by the villagers and have set up regular police checks in these areas.

A meeting between the two parishes and the police is to be held on Wednesday January 30 to discuss where to take the project next.

Mrs Heskey said: "A number of serious accidents have happened on Parsonage Road in the last three months; we are applying for speed cameras there but are being told that we don't meet the criteria.

"Our project has been a success in that we wanted to highlight what the problems were, and the police have been really helpful in training us and coming on our patrols."

The initiative is a prime example of policing in partnership with a community says Essex senior traffic management officer, Adam Pipe.

He said: "Both watch groups have proven to have really successful volunteers," he said. "It is clear they experienced a degree of non-compliance with the speed limits and have managed to secure frequent enforcement activity in an effort to address driver behaviour.