I am pleased to see the use of hand held radar speed cameras as the first line of defence for local community speed watch groups, these speed watch groups are vital in obtaining the initial statistics to show councils that issues exist.

The only issue I would raise is “participation” in carrying out these road side sessions, to my knowledge you need at least three people to conduct it, thus it is labour intensive.

The common issue experienced is “most people thought hand held cameras were a good idea if someone else was doing the work for them”, as they were very busy themselves.

I would like to thank the police for providing these hand held speed cameras, however with friends in neighbouring villages under HDC, who have several years of experience of enforcing speed restrictions it soon became obvious that their biggest bug bear was not having the freedom of their own set of speed guns/cameras.

I hope therefore that residents of Chatteris are not sharing one or two sets of speed guns/cameras between London Road, New Road, Wenny Road and Doddington Road. I say this as their own practical experience noted that during their absence of 24/7 speed guns, led to a 25 per cent increase in speeding until they used the guns again several weeks later. In fact despite the initial success of the hand held speed guns they have noticed a progressive increase in speed over all, more people drive “at the maximum speed limit” instead of just a five to 10mph margin under the speed limit.

Ramsey is now securing 20,000 in funding to introduce Stage two physical road obstructions in some villages to cause vehicles to stop and give way or slow down.

Interestingly Ramsey Mereside as part of the Chatteris to Peterborough/Whittlesey “rat run”, via Ramsey Forty Foot, Wells Bridge, Ramsey Mereside and Ponders Bridge have noticed the most progressive increase in excessive speed over all, regardless of all the hi visibility road signs and hand held speed guns, this could also be down to the fact/phenomenon that this route receives different delivery drivers on a daily basis as well as the hard core few who use this route to get to work every day of the week.

Clearly as it is a sparsely populated linier village spread out along the road, most drivers are prepared to take the risk without any fixed speed cameras that issue fines and points on your licensce.

I would also suggest that when “speed watch groups” and the “highways department” carry out “data collection”, they should also assess the “high peak traffic flow volumes” (traffic census) between 6am and 10am, 4pm till 9pm from Monday to Friday.

Unfortunately it is not uncommon for some councils to turn up at low peak traffic flow times or weekends to de bunk the need for traffic calming measures to cut their spending budget.

Obviously in contrast to high traffic volumes, excessive speed mostly occurs during low traffic flow as the roads are clearer and less obstructed.

In anticipation of the lack of participation in speed watch, I have personally contacted Cambs County Council and registered an application?

For Traffic Calming measures along Doddington Road, Chatteris. I would also like to say a great thank you to Amy Carney and the Chatteris Town Council for raising the issue of traffic calming measures at the latest town council meeting, I also understand there is a £10,000 funding grant available for implementing such traffic calming measures, unfortunately as always residents will have to make a contribution, 10 per cent.

I can confirm Chatteris Town Council has approved “reducing the speed limit” along Doddington Road, Chatteris from 40mph to 30mph and a 30mph flashing neon sign at the end of Curf Terrace to slow drivers down when entering Chatteris.

Chatteris Town Council has also approved the installation of a light controlled pedestrian crossing across Fenland Way between the Green Welly Motel and the Apple garage to provide a safer crossing point for school children going to and from school in Chatteris as well as general members of the public during the day, this could either be a pelican or zebra type crossing.

We shall now steadily move forward step by step, and hopefully these traffic calming measures will be installed in the near future.

MARK BURTON

Chatteris