Cllr Ian Wingfield, the LRSC representative for Southwark, explains how his borough has championed the Community Road Watch scheme, as recently reported by the LRSC.
In Southwark we have seen for first hand just how effective the community road watch scheme has been empowering the local community to have their own personal input in tackling the speeding issues that are affecting their communities.
On any given month of the year 12 volunteers can be found regularly attending speed watches throughout the borough. Each location is carefully selected by the police taking into consideration a history of speeding issues or locations flagged to the police via complaints and local residents. A typical month may well see between 6-10 locations on various dates across Southwark.
The schemes are proving very popular amongst our communities and people may be surprised to hear no formal signage is used to advertise the event as an element of surprise is seen as key to the success of the scheme. If a site continues to demonstrate a high level of inappropriate speed uniformed police officers will conduct additional speed enforcement exercises.
The scheme has generated much local publicity and on a whole the feedback from residents has been very positive and most importantly we are finding the schemes are proving very successful in helping to reduce speed. As a forward-thinking council, we are quite often challenged to deliver the local agenda to residents and make a real difference. The Community Road Watch scheme ticks this box empowering residents to make a real difference helping to promote healthier and safer communities.
I would highly recommend this scheme to other boroughs.