So the next village to me has gone all out on speeding. They’ve badgered the council enough so that now the limit is 20mph and they have huge speed humps all the way through the village meaning that unless you want to bottom out your car or smash the suspension to bits you can’t really get anywhere near breaking 20mph. They’ve also imposed a 7.5t limit which is not the point of this thread but still…
So yesterday I was ambling through their village on the way home - going less than 20mph as described above - and then get to the end of the village and there’s the community partnership sitting in the 50mph zone pointing their camera back into it no doubt catching people accelerating.
I was fine as I know they love nothing better than pointing their camera all day but I just thought it’s a bit nasty sitting there and pondered what safety aspect they could be coming from bearing in mind they could sit in the village and protect the safety of the residents but instead choose to catch people who have past the last built up area of the village and are heading to open countryside.
As it’s a new initiative the camera is likely to be there as a show of force for a short period ie a few weeks, then once people get wise and their revenue stream from the camera drops they’ll leave you alone and go hunting elsewhere, only returning periodically.
A few claims to the council for damaged suspension and broken alloy wheels will ultimately lead to the humps being altered or removed. If there’s a frequent bus service along the route where the humps are, it won’t take long before passengers start complaining about being bounced around and the bus company will get involved
Community safety partner, thingys are all inhabited by ex civil servants who retired at 55, with a nice fat pension, and have nothing better, but it’s good press for the local rag, the head of the rpu gets his picture in said rag with Mr nosey of the residents, If you get zapped by one you get a snotty letter from the plod,
biggriffin:
Community safety partner, thingys are all inhabited by ex civil servants who retired at 55, with a nice fat pension, and have nothing better to do, they oppose all planning in the local area, but it’s good press for the local rag, the head of the rpu gets his picture in said rag with Mr nosey of the residents, feel good.
Ha, spot on. As if we didn’t have enough agencies and departments to pay for. They’ll tell you they’re “volunteers with a passion for road safety” or some such soundbite nonsense, but rest assured, somebody is profiting from it.
I can never understand people who can’t live and let live. What is it with them? If you think you’ve got a problem with speeding vehicles, then harangue the appropriate authorities until they do something about it. Doing the government’s work for them (gratis too) is a stupid thing to do, unless you have another motive/reward lined up for doing so. The kind of people who “volunteer” for this kind of activity are rarely people who have altruism foremost in their minds.
I don’t think the OP is about a couple of campaigning local OAP’s standing at the side of the road wearing hi-vis waving a speed gun and noting registrations of speeding motorists, it seems to be Council lead, with new speed limits, signs, speed humps, and a camera van
peirre:
I don’t think the OP is about a couple of campaigning local OAP’s standing at the side of the road wearing hi-vis waving a speed gun and noting registrations of speeding motorists, it seems to be Council lead, with new speed limits, signs, speed humps, and a camera van
Actually both. The camera pointers are the silver brigade - folk from within the community with bugger all to do apart from log number plates of vehicles leaving their village.
But it’s obviously a spin off of a council led initiative to reduce speed but instead of the police policing it it’s Maude from number 42 and Roger from the pie shop.
peirre:
I don’t think the OP is about a couple of campaigning local OAP’s standing at the side of the road wearing hi-vis waving a speed gun and noting registrations of speeding motorists, it seems to be Council lead, with new speed limits, signs, speed humps, and a camera van
Actually both. The camera pointers are the silver brigade - folk from within the community with bugger all to do apart from log number plates of vehicles leaving their village.
But it’s obviously a spin off of a council led initiative to reduce speed but instead of the police policing it it’s Maude from number 42 and Roger from the pie shop.
It’s a slippery slope, that starts with this kind of “initiative” as they’re so fond of calling such rubbish, and ends, well, where? Somewhere dystopian, I imagine.
People volunteering to snoop on each other, to curry favour from those in positions of power, privacy being eroded, people volunteering (and paying) to have listening devices in their homes, CCTV everywhere and anywhere, “outings” of fellow citizens on the internet for transgressions (as the herd sees them) of whatever cause is topical today, etc etc etc
A few years ago, I walked out of the Stasi Museum in Berlin, and after shivering the horror of its contents off, I stood on the steps, laughing like a maniac at the irony of what I’d just seen, compared to what I lived every day in The UK.
biggriffin:
Community safety partner, thingys are all inhabited by ex civil servants who retired at 55, with a nice fat pension, and have nothing better, but it’s good press for the local rag, the head of the rpu gets his picture in said rag with Mr nosey of the residents, If you get zapped by one you get a snotty letter from the plod,
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
if its not a proper camera van,then once you know the end result is a snotty letter from plod,then all itl mean is the postman will need a bigger van to deliver the extra mail.
I used to work on the edge of a village that had a NSL road the then became a 30 mph limit through the village .
As you can expect many motorists were exceeding the 30 limit on entering the village which led to a campaign to have the approach speed limit lowered. This campaign was led by a right stroppy battle axe who took every opportunity to ram the speed kills line down the throat of all and sundry. She also appeared in the local paper as often as possible to to promote the campaign to lower the limit .
Eventually the limit was duly lowered with large announcements in the local paper .
As is normal the following week the local plod (my cousin) was out on the road with the radar gun .
It’s first customer?
Yep , the leader of the campaign to lower the speed limit !
She failed to see the irony when she appeared in the papers again!
peirre:
I don’t think the OP is about a couple of campaigning local OAP’s standing at the side of the road wearing hi-vis waving a speed gun and noting registrations of speeding motorists, it seems to be Council lead, with new speed limits, signs, speed humps, and a camera van
Actually both. The camera pointers are the silver brigade - folk from within the community with bugger all to do apart from log number plates of vehicles leaving their village.
But it’s obviously a spin off of a council led initiative to reduce speed but instead of the police policing it it’s Maude from number 42 and Roger from the pie shop.
It’s a slippery slope, that starts with this kind of “initiative” as they’re so fond of calling such rubbish, and ends, well, where? Somewhere dystopian, I imagine.
People volunteering to snoop on each other, to curry favour from those in positions of power, privacy being eroded, people volunteering (and paying) to have listening devices in their homes, CCTV everywhere and anywhere, “outings” of fellow citizens on the internet for transgressions (as the herd sees them) of whatever cause is topical today, etc etc etc
A few years ago, I walked out of the Stasi Museum in Berlin, and after shivering the horror of its contents off, I stood on the steps, laughing like a maniac at the irony of what I’d just seen, compared to what I lived every day in The UK.
Chillingly, nobody batted an eyelid.
Spot on, we are beleaguered by the stupid people, a brain only serves to make your life more difficult.
If your coming out of a 20 into a 50 you shouldn’t be accelerating beyond 20 until you’ve passed the 50 signs. You wouldn’t in your driving test so don’t when your an experienced driver
