SpeedWatch Report

Speedwatch Report

Many readers will know that West Bergholt have a SpeedWatch Group. This is a group of volunteers, trained by the police to use an approved radar speed device. Members are able to go, at a convenient time, to approved sites and monitor the speeds of the traffic. Any motorist exceeding a threshold speed has their vehicle details written down, with time and date, and this is passed to Essex Police. The keeper of the vehicle will then receive a letter from the Police asking them to obey the speed limits in future. The Police state:

“Persistent high violators will be targeted by Essex Police resulting in prosecution.”

Intimidating

Many people have been concerned about the speed of traffic along the B1508, Colchester Road, and Lexden Road in particular. Lorries and other large vehicles can be particularly intimidating where the footpaths are so narrow. Most of these vehicles are not exceeding the speed limit, but even then they create frightening turbulence.

The rail company paints yellow lines on the platform, to separate people from the trains. Most of our footpaths are not wide enough to allow such a gap. The B1508, Colchester-Bures Road in West Bergholt has similar issues. Many people also complain about the skip lorries. Again most of these are within the limit, but when we went at 6 am on September 30th, the first one we saw was doing 44 mph, in a 30 mph limit! Miraculously all the others were within the limit.

Town Event for SpeedWatch

A Town event was held in Colchester on 18th September 2013, which involved several speedwatch groups. I would like to share with you the final results for the day;

Road Safety staff gave advice and showed education videos to 51 offenders at enforcement sites, 300 people on community wheels outside the Town Hall with road safety staff and staff from the fire brigade giving advice, and 66 drivers were recorded traveling between 36 mph and 49 mph in Fingringhoe, Langenhoe, Peldon and West Bergholt by your local Community SpeedWatch Teams who conducted 5 sessions during the day.

One resident reported to me that their cat had been killed by a speeding and hit-and-run driver. It could easily be a child or an old person next time!

Nuisance to drivers?

If you are a motorist who regularly speeds and thinks we are a nuisance, I would just ask you to do a simple experiment. Try driving within the speed limit and see how much longer it takes. Inevitably we have to slow for junctions and traffic lights, so the actual maximum speed has a surprisingly small effect on total journey time.

If you would like to come and join us, please let me know, so that you can receive the police training. Once trained members can go when they are able to find another volunteer(s) to join them.

Anthony C Robin
Spring Lane,
01206 571910.
[antibot mailto=”[email protected]”]

April 20, 2013April 19, 2013

West Bergholt celebrates its volunteers

The Annual Parish Meeting takes place on 24th April starting at 7pm in the John Lampon Hall. As well as affording an opportunity for informal discussions with your local Parish & Borough Councillors this is an ideal opportunity to join them in celebrating our many local volunteers who help make West Bergholt as good a place to live as it is.

Other items for the event include:

a report on Neighbourhood Planning, and
light refreshments!

October 12, 2012March 17, 2016

Are speeders driving you nuts?

Community Speedwatch in action

… then why not get involved in cutting this scourge down. A Community Speedwatch foray near the Brewery yesterday morning captured details of 4 excessive speeders in the space of 50 minutes, all of which were passed to Essex Police, earlier in the month even more were caught on the A1124.

The more volunteers we have to mount these random speedchecks the more uncertainty we can put into the minds of frequent offenders who clearly have no qualms in breaking the speed limits on a regular basis. If you would like to join those already helping to make our roads safer then please contact Anthony Robin ([email protected]) and he will arrange training for you. If you would like to find out more about it first then please visit http://www.drivingcasualtiesdown.org/pages/enforcement/community-speedwatch/

This material has been developed for the West Bergholt Village Website at http://www.westbergholt.net

June 14, 2010

Volunteers – The Heartbeat of our Village

The Parish Council was invited to recognise the volunteers and their organisations that make such a difference to our village. The Colchester Community Volunteer Service held a thank you lunch for those volunteers nominated by the various communities in the Borough. Those attending were greeted by the Deputy Mayor in the Moot Hall and treated to lunch and presented with certificates as a thank you for their community spirit and involvement.

The Parish Council were faced with the difficult task of selecting the volunteers and organisations that make West Bergholt such a special place to live in. We had a maximum of 4 nominee invitations and with more than 20 volunteer organisations in the village this was not an easy task. I am always amazed and proud of the number of people who happily give up their free time to help and assist others. I view our volunteers as the heartbeat of the village whether they have just began to operate a new organisation or are part of one that has operated for many years. Our nominates were David Bowden, Murray Harlow, Bob Gooden and Susan Walby representing the BYG, Youth Football, Luncheon Club, the Church, Allotment Holders and First Responders to name just a few (they are pictured above).

Thank you to all our volunteers.

John Gili-Ross

This material has been developed for the West Bergholt Village Website at http://www.westbergholt.net

October 7, 2009

Youth Volunteers, Amber & Graham, Win Recognition

The recent Colchester Youth Awards saw Amber Harlow & Graham Pullen receive the recognition they deserved for their hours of dedicated volunteering to establish and operate the Bergholt Youth Group.

Sponsored by the Colchester Community Volunteer Service, the award recognises the efforts of young people who give their time voluntarily for the benefit of others. This is certainly something Amber & Graham have done. From very early days, nearly two years ago, when the idea of a Bergholt Youth Group was first discussed with Stanway School pupils, Amber & Graham demonstrated willingness to take on the challenge of forming the group through their leadership and willingness to get involved.

Having been involved in its original inception Graham & Amber are now active members of the management committee and were heavily involved in the successful application for nearly £4,000 in funding from the Youth Opportunity Fund. Between them they now organise the club’s activities including arranging for appropriate adult volunteers. The club continues to go from strength to strength under their leadership and now sees over 60 young people attending the fortnightly sessions.

Congratulations Amber & Graham for a well deserved award.

This material has been developed for the West Bergholt Village Website at http://www.westbergholt.net