Motorists speeding through villages are set to be the focus of police campaigns aiming to make rural roads safer.
Getting tough on speeders and improving road safety has been made a key priority in the new policing plan of Norfolk police and crime commissioner (PCC) Giles Orpen-Smellie.
It comes as figures show in 2021 the county’s volunteer Community Speed Watch groups, predominantly in small towns and villages, clocked 16,962 speeding motorists - the equivalent of 46 every day.
Last week the PCC and Norfolk chief constable Paul Sanford hosted a road safety conference, the first of its kind, in response to a large number of concerns.
Parish councillors from across the county came face-to-face with road policing officers, highways chiefs and the safety camera partnership to address the issue.
Mr Orpen-Smellie said his public meetings had identified speeding among the anti-social behaviours plaguing rural areas.
“They want speeding motorists, particularly in rural villages, to be tackled so that people who are out walking their dogs, riding bicycles or horses, or walking their children to school can feel safer,” he said.
Among the parish councils calling for action is Barnham Broom which has formally requested speed limits be lowered to 20mph after more than 200 people signed a petition following near misses.
In a letter to Norfolk County Council it stated the village had suffered numerous road collisions and near-misses.
David Bell, who organised the petition, said the speed limit of 30mph within the village and 60mph outside were “not fit for purpose”.
Chief constable Paul Sanford said Norfolk being largely rural posed a challenge and despite taking action over 40,000 road offences each year “enforcement alone will not reduce offending”.
“Communication campaigns, driver education, road design and technology all have a role to play in making our roads safer,” he said.
“We will target our enforcement in the sites where our data suggests collisions are most likely to occur.”
He said the constabulary is exploring how to better use the information passed to them by Community Speed Watch groups to target hot-spots where speeding is rife even though serious accidents may not have yet occurred.
“We know that the majority of drivers who routinely ignore basic road safety measures including speed limits, are often those who will have a disregard in general for road traffic laws.
"These drivers pose a danger to themselves, and other road users and we will always look to prosecute dangerous drivers where we can," he added.
77,000 speeding drivers caught by community volunteers
Community Speed Watch was launched in 2007 and is a project empowering communities to help tackle the problem of speeding.
The groups are issued with a speed radar gun, signs and reflective jackets and carry out speed checks in 30mph and 40mph limits.
Despite Covid lockdown measures in place at the start of 2021, volunteers from 79 groups were back out on the roads of Norfolk assisting as a visible speeding deterrent.
Registered vehicle owners whose vehicles are clocked breaking the speed limit have their details recorded and receive a warning letter requesting them to keep their speed down.
In total 77,693 warning letters have been sent in the last six years.
• To set up a scheme or for further information visit norfolk.police.uk/join-us/volunteers/community-speed-watch or email communityspeedwatch@norfolk.police.uk
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