Cowbit Community Speed Watch volunteers record 14 per cent of drivers breaking 30mph limit
A driver has been reported to police after reaching a speed of 97mph on a road through Cowbit, it has been confirmed.
Community Speed Watch (CSW) volunteers in the village caught the driver breaking the 30mph maximum speed limit along Barrier Bank during a patrol in September.
During a virtual meeting of Cowbit Parish Council on Monday, parish council chairman Coun Trevor Tyrrell said the driver concerned “should be locked up” after members learned that they would be sent an advisory letter by police.
Coun Tyrrell said: “I think CSW volunteers are all doing a very good job and they are needed, considering the amount of speeding that’s been recorded.
“I know it can a thankless job but, as far as I’m concerned, it’s very welcome and the driver who was caught doing 97mph should be locked up.”
Figures supplied to parish councillors by the CSW group in Cowbit showed that 14 per cent of drivers ignored the village’s 30mph speed limit across a total of ten patrols in Backgate, Barrier Bank and Stonegate in September and October.
Two vehicles reached 63mph last month, while speeds of 66mph, 67mph and 97mph were recorded in September.
Vice chairman Coun Chris Elliott said: “CSW volunteers have pointed out that on Stonegate and, in particular, on Backgate, there are 30mph signs at the end of the road.
“But there are no repeater signs so that if you come out of a side road onto Backgate or Stonegate, drivers know what the speed limit is even though all of us who have passed our driving test should know that it’s 30mph in a built-up area.”
Councillors agreed to write to county highways officials and ask if 30mph indicators could be painted on the roads.
. Meanwhile, two servicemen from Cowbit who died during World War II are to be honoured with a plaque.
The village already has streets named after Harold Clarkson and Charles Rowland Parkin, but the war memorial inside St Mary’s Church only has the names of those who died during World War I.
Darren Harper, chairman of the Cowbit Village Hall Committee, said: “We’ve got Remembrance Sunday coming up and the street sign in Parkin Road has been cleaned and remounted.
“But the one in Clarkson Drive is in a bad state of disrepair. It was mentioned that it would be cleaned and remounted, but it still needs doing.”
Coun Tyrrell said: “We’re planning to put a plaque with the names of the two men who died in World War II on it at the base of the village sign.”
