The group on Langcliffe Avenue

A North Yorkshire Police spokesperson said:

“The first step in the Community Speed Watch process is to identify areas for the group to stand. Once approved, the group will receive training, and at that point they can either share equipment with other nearby groups or purchase their own equipment.

“Once fully trained, the group can deploy as often as they wish, although most groups deploy for an hour at a time, once or twice a week.

“Any vehicles found to be speeding will have their details taken down and sent to the North Yorkshire Police traffic bureau. Once verified, the registered keepers of those vehicles will receive warning letters. A police officer will attend the address of the registered keeper if they are ‘caught’ three times.

“We currently have about 88 groups taking part in the scheme across North Yorkshire. Since its inception in 2016, around 96% of all offences have been first offences – indicating that people who receive their first warning letter do take the advice on board and adjust their driving behaviour.”

Councillors call for 20 mph limit to be trialled in Harrogate and Knaresborough

A campaign for speed limits to be reduced from 30mph to 20mph has been backed by Harrogate and Knaresborough councillors who have called for the changes to be piloted in larger areas.

The slower limits were described as a “popular” way to make roads safer at a meeting of North Yorkshire County Council’s Harrogate and Knaresborough Area Constituency Committee.

However, not everyone is in support of the ’20s plenty’ campaign, with some councillors raising questions over enforcement and the costs involved.

The area committee voted nine for, two against and with one abstention in their calls for the county council’s executive to agree to test out 20mph limits in towns and villages.

But the authority is already standing firm in its belief that the lower speed limits work best in a more targeted approach, such as outside schools.

Allan McVeigh, head of network strategy at the county council, told the meeting that 20mph limits should only be introduced where they are “appropriate for that part of the network”.

He said:

“The county council is committed to making the network safe and accessible for all road users, and will continue to engage with local communities

“Introducing a 20mph speed limit or zone to a road where drivers do not already conform to lower speeds will likely result in poor compliance and consequently understandable local complaints.”

Mr McVeigh said the costs of introducing lower speed limits across the Harrogate and Knaresborough area would exceed £1 million, although he added this could be more as roads where drivers regularly exceed 24mph would require more measures than just signage and road markings.

These extra measures could involve speed bumps and chicanes which councillors admitted are not always popular.

Read More:

• Majority of residents want 20mph speed limit, councillor says
• Calls for blanket 20mph speed limit dismissed again

Across North Yorkshire, more than 100 parishes have voted for default 20mph speed limits across built-up areas.

Campaign supporter Malcolm Margolis said that targeting schools only “achieves little or nothing”:

“People need to be able to walk and cycle safely from home to school, and to friends, relatives, play areas and other destinations.

“The 30mph limit was introduced in 1935 to tackle a spate of road casualties – I hope you agree it is no longer fit for purpose.

“Please support the default 20mph to make our communities safer and better places to live.”

Ouseburn councillor Arnold Warneken also said it was “inadequate” to have the lower speed limits on just some streets and that questions over enforcement are a “smokescreen” for not introducing the changes on a wider basis.

He said:

“The same problems exist whether you are enforcing 30mph or 20mph.

“There are problems, I acknowledge that, but I don’t think we should let that stand in the way of doing what is right.”

Earlier this year, the county council’s executive approved a policy to introduce 20mph speed limits on a “targeted, evidence-based approach”.

This followed a review by the authority’s Transport, Economy and Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee which will revisit the issue in January.

A survey of all police forces in England and Wales has revealed motorists in North Yorkshire are the third likeliest to record speeding offences.

The average number of speeding offences in the county is 4.54 per 1,000 residents, according to the research.

Only Lincolnshire, where the rate is 5.43 offences per 1,000 residents, and South Wales, where the figure is 5.23, are above it in the league table of 43 police force areas in England and Wales.

At the other end of the scale, Durham has the fewest speeding offences committed on average each year, with just 0.95 per 1,000 people.

Price comparison website Forbes Advisor compiled the latest speeding offence data from data.police.uk spanning 2010 to 2020 across each police force area in England and Wales to establish an annual average of speeding offences made.

This was cross referenced with population data from ONS to find the areas with the most speeding offences per 1,000 residents.  

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North Yorkshire was found to have an average of 3,774 speed limit offences per year from a population of 831,600.

North Yorkshire Police today announced a two-week blitz on speeding motorists.

The constabulary said in a statement traffic officers will be targeting excess and inappropriate speed on county roads “over the next couple of weeks”. It added:

“Twenty-four-hour enforcement activity will take place across the county, with an aim of catching those who put other road users in danger.”

Today marks the start of a three-week nationwide speed enforcement operation, led by the National Police Chiefs’ Council, which represents British chief police officers.

The initiative, which includes National Safe Speed Day on October 19, highlights the risks of speeding and encourages motorists to slow down.

Between January 1 and December 31 last year, there were 85,610 speed violations captured by safety camera vans and safety camera bikes in North Yorkshire.

Expect to see more police speed vans over the next two weeks. Photo by Martin Dawes

The last speed enforcement campaign in January this year resulted in almost 5,200 speeding violations during that month alone.

Traffic Constable Ali Hoyle said:

“These figures show just how much of an issue speeding is here for us in North Yorkshire and this is not a huge surprise as we have a vast road network across the county including hundreds of miles of rural roads.

“The reason why we do these types of deployments is because we are trying to prevent serious collisions on our roads and make them as safe as they can possibly be.

“There are so many dangers associated with excessive speeding, not least because it’s a major cause of fatal road traffic collisions. By slowing down and making sure you drive to the conditions of the road, you have more time to react to other drivers and hazards.

Former Leeds Rhinos head coach and Harrogate resident Brian McDermott has escaped a driving ban after arguing he needs his car to scout players.

McDermott, 52, of Knox Mill Close, was in York Magistrates Court yesterday after being caught driving his BMW above the 60mph speed limit on the A59 close to Bolton Abbey last year.

The coach, who also represented England and Great Britain during his playing career, pleaded guilty but asked the court to waive the three points as it would take him to 12 points and an automatic ban.

In a submission to the court, Mr McDermott said he unexpectedly found himself out of work for 18 months after his previous club Toronto Wolfpack went out of business due to covid in March 2020.

During this time he had been living from savings, which were now close to running out.

In October 2021, he took a job as head coach at Featherstone Rovers who play in the second-tier of the sport.

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McDermott said he drives over 40,000 miles a year for the role, which involves work in the community, travelling to amateur clubs and scouting players.

He said he was the only person at Featherstone able to watch players from other clubs.

Without the car, he said he could potentially lose his job, which would mean he’d struggle to pay child support and rent.

Special reasons

Magistrates said they were satisfied that Mr McDermott had ‘special reasons’ for contesting the penalty points. 

However, they said the reasons given were not appropriate “in all of the circumstances” so they issued the three penalty points, taking him to 12 overall, but allowed him to continue driving.

He was also fined £307 and asked to pay a victim’s surcharge of £34 and costs of £85 to the Crown Prosecution Service.

A motorist was clocked driving 84mph through a leafy street in Pannal, the parish council has revealed.

A machine operated by Pannal & Burn Bridge Parish Council records the speed of vehicles on Church Lane and it registered the car racing down the 30mph zone last year.

Since then it has regularly found cars and vans dangerously breaking the speed limit. In May 2022 alone, 277 vehicles were recorded travelling faster than 50mph.

Speeding problem

The parish council has three Speed Indicator Devices (SIDs) within the parish.

The machines flash the current speed to the motorist and run 24/7, with the data then relayed back to North Yorkshire Police.

The council’s chair, Cllr Howard West, said they have begun to publish the data because “many people had no idea” of the speeding problem in Pannal.

Mr West said:

“With more housing being built on the western arc, it will only become worse.

“More white vans for home deliveries under time pressure and more irresponsible drivers were some of the reasons we chose to employ Speed Indicator Devices (SIDs).”

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In March 2022, the top three speeds were 76mph, 71mph and 69mph.

Mr West wants to make people aware that Church Lane, Yew Tree Lane and Burn Bridge Road are 30mph zones and through Main Street in the village itself it is 20mph.

He added:

“We’ll keep highlighting those ridiculously high speeds, sometimes around school pick-up times, in the hope that common sense will prevail and people will travel at no more than 30mph or in some cases 20mph in our parish. “

North Yorkshire Police has denied changing its mobile speed vans in response to an image that has been circulating on social media.

The photograph (above) of the dark blue and yellow vehicle has caused a stir on local Facebook groups, with people complaining that the new vans are harder to recognise.

The image, which has been shared thousands of times, has also sparked a big debate about speeding and mobile cameras in the Harrogate district in general.

Many comments support them and say drivers should not to go too fast in the first place. However there are also a number of people opposing the vehicles, claiming they are just “money spinners”.

Read more:

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The van is alleged to have been spotted in North Yorkshire, however the force has denied it being one of its fleet.

A spokesman for North Yorkshire Police said:

“This isn’t our van, our vans don’t look like that.”

He added that it appeared to have no links to North Yorkshire Police and therefore was unable to comment further.

Former Leeds United midfielder Ronaldo Vieira has been fined by magistrates in Harrogate for speeding.

Vieira, 23, who was sold by Leeds to Sampdoria in 2018, was caught speeding on the A1237 near Rufforth on July 13 last year.

He was fined £250 by Harrogate Magistrates Court and ordered to pay a £34 surcharge and £90 court costs.

The case was dealt with in his absence.

Vieira currently plays for Sampdoria in the Italian Serie A league and has made 26 appearances for the club.

He was sold to the Italian side for £7.7 million in August 2018.

Read more:

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Stray Views is a weekly column giving you the chance to have your say on issues affecting the Harrogate district. It is an opinion column and does not reflect the views of the Stray Ferret. Send your views to letters@thestrayferret.co.uk.

Boroughbridge Road Blues

I’d like to raise some issues about the impact of traffic on Boroughbridge Road, here in Knaresborough.

I am a resident and very concerned about the impact of heavy vehicles and speeding traffic. Vehicles regularly exceed the speed limit and the size of some vehicles using the road means walking on the pavement is not a great experience and our house regularly shakes as vehicles pass.

I’ve raised these concerns with the highways authority, the police commissioner and my local Harrogate councillors.

I’ve suggested among other things: bigger speed signs, vehicle activated signs, repeater signs, more road markings and a review of weight limits.

It’s fair to say I haven’t made much progress with the the bodies responsible for traffic and speeding. The county council and the police both mainly referred me to the other body. The county council didn’t respond to the weight limit issue.

I appreciate resources are limited but I think it’s high time something was done to address a blight on the lives of our community. My suggestions wouldn’t cost a great deal, especially when considered against the cost of the negative impact the current situation has on peoples’ well being.

I see also it’s recently been an issue in the election material we’re getting through the door, so maybe now is the time to apply pressure on prospective candidates in the forthcoming elections and demand some clear commitments on what they would do in the new council.

All that’s in the future though, what I’d really like to see is some action now!

Ian Brown, Knaresborough

Read more:

• ‘Do you need to wait until somebody is killed by a speeding car?’
• Next phase of Otley Road cycle path delayed and reviewed

Council got it wrong with Otley Road cycle path

It seems North Yorkshire County Council has got it wrong again with the Otley Road cycle path. Cycle paths and pedestrians should be kept separate! Also spending millions for a minority is ridiculous. I am sure if council tax payers had been asked, it would have been a resounding no.

This is the second time they have made a mess of Otley Road. Several years ago they decided to put bollards in the centre of the road. The result was that buses and lorries were unable to pass.

Another moronic idea was when they changed the road priority in Burn Bridge so that vehicles coming from the left had right of way.

Howard Angel, Harrogate

A parish council near Knaresborough has written to 32 North Yorkshire county councillors urging them to make 20mph the default speed limit in their area.

Goldsborough and Flaxby Parish Council said in the email action should be taken now to reduce the current 30mph limit before somebody is killed.

The council wrote the letter in support of the 20s Plenty campaign, which is a national initiative to make a 20mph speed limit normal on residential streets and in town and village centres.

The email says drivers “put their foot down” in Goldsborough even though it has a primary school. It adds that only about 15% of all the roads have pavements on both sides, forcing them to walk on the highways,

The red arrow shows the playground entrance in Goldsborough.

It adds:

“There is a high proportion of elderly residents in Goldsborough, many of whom may have hearing issues and reduced sight, and are physically less able to move out of the way quickly.

“There are not many street lights in the village and, as such, at dusk or in the dark, it is not easy for drivers to see people walking in or crossing the roads.”

Flaxby speed signs ‘in wrong place’

The email says the current 30mph signs in Flaxby “are completely in the wrong place, and drivers have already entered the village before they see the speed signs and even think about slowing down”.

It adds a speed survey in 2018 revealed 17.5% of motorists travelled over the 30mph speed limit. The correspondence also raises concerns about the lack of street lighting and the number of HGVs driving through the village to visit the weigh-station at Gill’s Farm, just past Coneythorpe.

HGVs often go along Shortsill Lane in Flaxby, which has no pavements.

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The email says:

“Do you really need to wait until somebody is killed by a car speeding through a North Yorkshire village before you begin to tackle this important issue?”

North Yorkshire County Council is the highways authority for the county. The parish council wrote to 32 county councillors that sit on boards, panels and committees that could influence speeding decisions.

Caroline Greenhalgh, vice chairman of the parish council, told the Stray Ferret it had received just two responses from councillors so far, saying the matter was being considered.