October 14, 2022 5.11 pm This story is over 24 months old

Spalding ‘unable to set up speed watch scheme’

The town doesn’t have the power without a council

Spalding isn’t able to catch speeding motorists because it doesn’t have a town council, a meeting has heard.

The town forum was told that residents have been demanding for a speed watch scheme.

Chair Councillor Roger Gambaa-Jones said he would dearly like to set up a scheme, but didn’t have the power.

Others warned that it sent a bad message to Spalding motorists.

A resident of Winsover Road whose property had been damaged by speeding motorist was amongst those who wanted action.

“I would love to be able to have speed monitoring around the town – my own road is a speeding hotspot,” Councillor Gamboa-Jones said.

“But setting it up authorised by police is a multitude of problems if you haven’t got the same set-up in the towns and villages outside Spading.

“Community speed watches are usually dependent on having parish council as bedrock. Someone needs to buy and hold equipment.

The lack of enforcement ‘sends the wrong message’ | Photo: The Lincolnite

“Of course we don’t have [a town or parish council]. It doesn’t appear to be something Spalding can do for itself.

“We would have to go the Cabinet for funding, and then who would hold and operate the equipment?”

Spalding’s town forum is able to hold discussions, but doesn’t have decision-making power of its own.

Councillor Gambaa-Jones has been a long-standing advocate of setting up a town council to better represent locals.

The meeting also heard that the police tend to rely on communities to monitor speeders, using their data to send letters to regular offenders.

Councillor Gary Taylor told the meeting that the lack of enforcement left a bad impression.

“If villages can have enforcement, we don’t want to send the message that drivers can speed in Spalding and get away with it,” he said.

“It makes it unsafe for pedestrians, cyclists and other road users. We should look into it further.”