Letter: Help Reduce Speeding By Joining a Community Speedwatch Team

Published on: 4 Jun, 2025
Updated on: 4 Jun, 2025

Community Speedwatch SCC

From David Roberts

In response to: Reduced Speed Limits Will Save Lives

Helen Skinner is right to be concerned about speeding. Across Surrey, speeding is linked to one in three serious and fatal crashes, with over 2,000 people killed or seriously injured. Most crashes take place within 30mph zones.

With police resources stretched, how can residents help prevent this? One answer is to join a local Community Speedwatch team, or form a new one.

Managed by Surrey Police, who provide initial training, Speedwatch volunteers in West Horsley typically spend between two and four hours a month monitoring the speed of passing vehicles using a hand-held radar. They operate at about nine locations around the village, which have to be approved by the police.

In May, volunteers logged 108 vehicles doing well over the limit in West Horsley. Details are recorded on a national database by the police, who issue warning letters to drivers. Repeat offenders can be investigated by the police, receive fines and points on their licence, which can impact on insurance premiums.

The key aim of Community Speedwatch is not to punish drivers but to deter speeding and improve awareness. Social attitudes to speeding are changing, just as they have towards smoking, drink-driving, seatbelts or plastic bags. Merely by being visible on our streets, volunteers are doing something practical to end behaviour that is anti-social and sometimes lethal.

Speedwatch volunteering is easy, safe, sociable, interesting and effective. For general information, see also communityspeedwatch.org and surreyroadsafe.org.uk. To take part in West Horsley, please email westhorsleycsw@gmail.com.