The SaferMK Neighbourhood Action Groups (NAGs) of Milton Keynes rural North, South, East and West neighbourhoods have become the first areas in Milton Keynes to purchase and use a Community Speed Watch device.

Community Speed Watch is a portable roadside speed measuring device, which will be used in the rural neighbourhoods to monitor speeding vehicles through the villages to address the residents concerns raised during public consultation. Speeding appeared to be the priority concern in most, if not all, of the villages surrounding Milton Keynes.

The Community Speed Watch scheme, introduced throughout the entire Thames Valley Police area of Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Oxfordshire in August 2009, but having previously been used in other areas of Buckinghamshire, is a way of allowing communities to help themselves to address their own priorities.

The scheme entails community volunteers monitoring the flow of traffic within their particular problem areas and recording the details of vehicles that exceed the legal speed limit. It will only be utilised in signed 30mph and 40mph areas.

The details of any vehicles breaking the speed limit will be passed to Thames Valley Police who will place them on a database and send out an initial warning letter to the registered owner of the vehicle. A second speed violation anywhere in Thames Valley Police area will generate a final warning letter and subsequent violations will be addressed by formal speed enforcement by Thames Valley Police officers, with all the historical intelligence gained from the Community Speed Watch volunteers in terms of times, location and vehicle details.

The formal speed enforcement, which will only be carried out by police officers, may take the form of £60 Fixed Penalty Notices and points on your licence, or even being reported for summons and appearing before the court. This depends on how far above the speed limit the vehicle was travelling and previous driving history. It may, in extreme cases, result in a driving ban.

The volunteer Community Speed Watch deployments will be where and when the NAG members see fit as it is a community owned device for use by the communities themselves.

It is viewed in a similar way to Neighbourhood Watch in that it is a way of feeding back information to the police so that they can take the appropriate action to try and resolve a neighbourhood problem.

Community Speed Watch is a non-confrontational method of data gathering by the community which empowers that community to make a real impact on their own priorities.

PC Andy Perry, Neighbourhood Officer for the rural west neighbourhood, said: “I think that the NAGs have been extremely proactive in addressing their priority concern of speeding and driving the Community Speed Watch option forward to where it is now.

“Community Speed Watch is here and will, I’m sure, make a difference. We have the first Community Speed Watch device in the Milton Keynes area and with the enthusiasm of the village residents to use it, I can only see one of two possible outcomes, firstly that vehicles will be found speeding and start to populate the database, with all the potential ramifications to the drivers involved or secondly, as I hope, vehicles will slow down and the speeding priority will have been satisfactorily addressed”.

PC Julian Kendall, Neighbourhood Officer for the rural east, said: “All traffic regulations are put in place to improve safety and reduce accidents. Speed is a factor in many road traffic collisions and if Community Speed Watch can save one life then it has to be good thing.

“Well done to the rural NAGs for their forward thinking and positive attitude to Community Speed Watch.”

Mark Lancaster, the Member of Parliament for North East Milton Keynes, said: “I am delighted to see the NAGS, the police and Milton Keynes Council working so well together meaning law abiding people being given the opportunity to address their main concerns in a positive manner.”

The Neighbourhood Action Groups, which have been working to help improve residents priorities and concerns for 18 months are small groups made up of residents, parish councillors, representatives from Thames Valley Police and Milton Keynes Council and meet at regular intervals to try and address concerns of the neighbourhood itself. Each NAG, and there are 33 across the city, look at addressing their top three priorities.

If you would like to sit on your local NAG, or attend to see what it’s about, details can be found on the Thames Valley Police website, http://www.thamesvalley.police.uk/ and the Milton Keynes Council website, http://www.safermk.com/ via the Safer Neighbourhood link.

If you live in one of the four rural neighbourhoods and would like to become a volunteer user of Community Speed Watch then please contact one of your NAG representatives.