Speed checks are for cash not safety
I AM writing further to reading your article regarding the Speedwatch activity in Ramsey and surrounding areas (The Hunts Post, September 5).
I have recently been caught speeding leaving Warboys and a friend has been caught speeding leaving Ramsey - for which we both hold up our hands.
However, what makes us cross, and the reason for my letter, is the fact that we were both caught leaving the towns, not coming into them. This would appear to be more of a revenue-generating exercise than a safety exercise. Wouldn’t it make more sense to prevent speeding cars entering the towns rather than leaving them?
The police speed camera van was sited approximately 100 yards before the end of the speed restriction in Warboys. In Ramsey, the Speedwatch team and the police camera van site themselves approximately 200 yards before the end of the speed restriction.
In your article it is stated that Mr McCandless began the Speedwatch activities to monitor residential hotspots.
The Ramsey Speedwatch activity takes place beyond the two housing estates - they are in fact in front of the cemetery! In Warboys, the police camera van was parked in the bus stop - albeit quite close to housing - but again facing traffic leaving the town.
I have actually stopped and spoken to the Speedwatch team in Ramsey and asked why they were situated behind a wall. Their reply was that it was in their best health and safety interests and that the wall protected them from oncoming traffic. I then asked why they didn’t patrol other areas in Ramsey or, better still, the incoming traffic and I was told that it was due to a shortage of volunteers.
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I did suggest that maybe they themselves could move to a different location in which drivers did speed (such as a road entering Ramsey, not leaving it), but I did not receive a reply.
Regrettably, the letter I received from the police notifying me of their intention to prosecute did not allow me to include any correspondence to ask these questions. Perhaps they might be asked through your newspaper, on my and other car drivers’ behalf.
I reiterate that I was guilty of the offence, but I still do not understand why the operation is carried out at those locations and in that direction of traffic.
Mrs S NAPIER
Ramsey
