Speeding

Speed Data 2022-23

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September 2020

The results of the consultation have been made available.  There were nine emails of support for the proposals and one objection.  The responses (with names redacted) can be seen here.

The Parish Council resolved at our meeting on 17th September to request that the new speed limits be implemented.  A request was made to Bedford Borough Council on 18th to implement the changes.

March 2020

Speed limits are being reviewed in Duloe and Staploe and the proposals below will be out for consultation in March and April 2020.

Staploe and Duloe speed limit proposals

April 2018

Speed limits were introduced for the first time in Honeydon in April 2018

 

January 2018:

Data recorders were installed in the village in December 2017.  We had requested these be installed in summer 2017 before the summer holidays but when this didn’t happen we asked for them to wait until the school term restarted.  Unfortunately the Highways Department then only installed them on 8th December and we had snow and ice on 10th and 11th December and some were in the wrong place.  However, the Highways department arranged for them to be moved to more suitable locations as per our request and for the recorders to remain for another week to gather further data.

The recorders were placed at :Manor Farm, Duloe; in western Staploe between the bridelway at Bridgeside and the 30mph sign (this recorder was then moved to central Staploe), in central Staploe near the phone box (moved from the western edge of the village),  and between Orchard Cottage and the 30mph sign to the east of Staploe.  The latter is a national speed limit zone but we have received a request for this speed limit to be reduced so we wanted to establish what speed cars were travelling at.

Unfortunately requests for a reduction to the speed limit in Honeydon were only received after the data recorders were requested in spring 2017 so Honeydon did not receive any recorders.  However, we hope to use a mobile speed indicator device to capture data in 2018.

Summary of the results:

Duloe: 39% of cars were exceeding 30mph and 14% were more than 10% over the limit

West Staploe: 84% of cars were exceeding 30mph and 72% were more than 10% over the limit

Central Staploe: 6% of cars were exceeding 30mph and 1% by more than 10%

 

To the east of Staploe in the 60mph zone we gathered the following data:

Speed		0-10	10-15	15-20	20-25	25-30	30-35	35-40	40-45	45-50	50-55	55-60	60-65	65-70	70-75
Total # cars	2420	3	20	29	91	296	613	680	406	206	53	16	5	1	1
Peprcentage		0%	1%	1%	4%	12%	25%	28%	17%	9%	2%	1%	0%	0%	0%

 

This shows that there were 76 cars travelling over 50mph on this stretch of road during the week.

The full data is available in the following spreadsheets:

Manor Farm Duloe speed data Dec 2017

West Staploe speed data Dec 2017

Phone box, Staploe speed data Dec 2017

East of Staploe 60mph zone speed data Dec 2017

 Honeydon

We have recently received a number of complaints about speeding in Honeydon.  We discussed the introduction of a 30mph zone in Honeydon at our meeting on 16th January and five residents of Honeydon attended to support this proposal.  The Clerk will write to Bedford Borough Council to request that they consider this and she will arrange a meeting with Highways to look at the problem.  Rersidents of Honeydon have explained that 60mph is not a suitable limit for this village.  Children are waiting for buses on the side of the road with no pavements and cars are travelling past at 60mph on the narrow roads in the village.

Richard Squire has generously offered to purchase a mobile speed indicator device for the village which will gather speed data and warn drivers if they are travelling too fast.  We hope this will help deter speeding drivers and help us to build a case for reducing speed limits where necessary and to bid for the Borough to allocate funds to introduce speed reduction measures.

More information about these mobile signs can be found here:

http://www.morelock.co.uk/assets/MorelockSpeedSign-GR33.pdf

Vehicle Activated Sign

We have a vehicle activated sign in Duloe which flashes a reminder if drivers are travelling above 30mph.  We have received mixed reports about whether it is working or not.  Please let us know if you think it is not working.  We can replace the batteries if necessary.

 

February 2017:

Speeding continues to be a problem in the parish and we have received complaints from a number of parishioners including the postman.  We requested extra speed checks and the police did attend on 8th February 2017 in Staploe 07:52 to 08:20 and Duloe 08:23 to 08:40.  Unfortunately, they were highly visible (apparently they have to be) and so they didn’t see anyone speeding in Staploe and only one of 13 in Duloe (who will receive a warning letter).

At a recent Parish Council meeting a parishioner complained about the speed of vehicles including taxis in Staploe between midday and 1am.  Richard Squire will be writing to the manager of the wedding venue to remind staff and guests to abide by speed limits and the Clerk will write to local taxi companies.

The Clerk will also request that the Highways department install a data cable / cables in order to build a better body of evidence of speeding in the parish.

Meanwhile you may have noticed that our Vehicle Activated Sign in Duloe is not working.  Callout fees to service these signs are exorbitant so we had to do some negotiating to find someone prepared to look at it and we hope to be replacing the solar batteries soon.

Alan Potts has done a lot of work with Andrew Prigmore of Bedford Borough Council to investigate different speed reduction measures for Duloe in particular and received some ball park costs but Bedford Borough Council have no budget to introduce any of these measures in our villages so they would need to be funded by the parish.

• Pinch Point.  One road narrowing point located at the entrance to Duloe travelling west somewhere between house number 1 and 5. New signage, road marking, lighting and a small amount of design would be needed. Cost estimated at +£10,000.  There are reservations due to a non-continuous flow of traffic because it works better with a continuous flow but it might help to calm traffic to some extent.
• Chicane’s.  A better option but more work and higher costs.  Would need to be located at the entrance to Duloe travelling west between house number 1 and 5.  There would be a need to avoid a clash with the entrance to house number 5.
• Speed Bumps.  These would ideally be located between the entrance to Duloe and between house number one and Daniels Farm. Additional lighting would be needed, and there would be an increase in noise so consultation with all residents would be required. Cost around +£50,000.
• Spot Speed Camera.  This would be a much better solution but was not discussed further due to the estimated cost of +£50,000.
• Average Speed Camera.  This was briefly mentioned as the best option. Bedford Borough Council have a very limited budget which is thought to be enough for one or two to cover all the villages in North Bedfordshire.  Cost +£40,000.  At present our speeding problem has not been shown to be as significant as many other villages in North Bedfordshire.

One of the most effective deterrents is the local Community Speedwatch Scheme who are able to use a laser gun and camera to capture information on speeding motorists and send it to the police.  The police then send a warning letter to the motorist but they do not fine them or add points.

The Parish Council can only do speedwatch if there are three trained volunteers available and we urgently need more volunteers so if you care about speeding vehicles please contact the Clerk to volunteer.

Meanwhile we recommend that anyone who sees a vehicle speeding in the village calls the police on 101.  Even if you don’t have the number plate it will be logged and it all helps build evidence of a problem and makes it more likely that the police will do further checks and the Council will consider us for future engineering projects to reduce speeding.

If anyone has any ideas of measures which might help reduce speeding, is willing to organise fund raising activities towards speed reduction measures, or has any thoughts or objections to any of the above measures please contact the Parish Clerk.

 

The results of the Community Speedwatch are as follows:

27/05/2015         92 Cars Seen      6 going faster than 33     Time 07.30-9.00

28/05/2015         51 Cars Seen      3 going faster than 33     Time 15.00-17.00

29/05/2015         77 Cars Seen      8 going faster than 33     Time 07.00-08.50

09/05/2015         99 Cars Seen      5 going faster than 33     Time 07.00-08.30

12/06/2015         67 Cars Seen      3 going faster than 33     Time 07.00-08.30

 

Of the cars travelling faster than 33 mph the average speed was 38mph

The police will check the data to ensure that the number plate matches the type of car and then send letters to each person caught speeding over 33mph.  After three letters the police will pay them a visit and if there is a regular high speed offender they will come out and attempt to catch the driver with the speed van.

Cllr Potts has been actively working with Bedford Borough Council’s Highways Department to reduce speeding in Duloe and the Borough have recently extended the 30mph zone eastwards, added 30mph repeaters and added a 40mph graduated speed limit zone to the east of the village.  They have also agreed to install a gate feature at the eastern entrance to Duloe and paint lines to make it appear narrower and encourage people to slow down.

As a result of the speedwatch information and at the request of Cllr Squire the police installed data boxes to gather data in Duloe and Staploe in July 2015.  The results are as follows:

Duloe speed data July 15

Staploe Speed Data