Boost for Wiltshire's Community Speed Watch volunteers

Wiltshire’s PCC has appointed a new volunteer Community Speed Watch (CSW) coordinator to work closely with current volunteers, Wiltshire Police's CSW coordinator and with the county’s community policing teams.

Commissioner Philip Wilkinson said the move was part of his commitment to improving road safety for all in Wiltshire – making the county a safer place to live, work and play.

Currently, there are 115 Community Speed Watch teams across the county, made up of 945 volunteers. Under the new plans, the current volunteers would be divided in to eight teams which roughly match the boundaries of the current community policing areas.

This move would mean each area team would nominate a lead CSW coordinator to feed in to the overarching volunteer coordinator and creating a clearer path for communicating data with Wiltshire Police in order that enforcement efforts are targeted on identified speeding hot spots.

South Newton parish councillor John Derryman, an existing CSW member, has taken on the new volunteer role.

He aims to further enhance the co-ordination, and communication, with Wiltshire Police, alongside the simplified organisational restructure within the CSW volunteer teams for a more effective and efficient CSW.

Cllr Derryman said: “I am really delighted to be able to help, and add value to our current CSW, in this way.

“Like all CSW team members, I have volunteered many hours to improving road safety and have been at the sharp end of abusive motorists. No one does this for the thanks or praise!

“As volunteers, we want to be reassured those hours on the kerbside are worth it and that we are communicating with the police in the right way so efforts both sides are producing the results we all want to see.”

And PCC Wilkinson added: “Our Community Speed Watch volunteers provide a vitally-important role in the county and play a huge part in keeping our roads safe.

“I realised I could do more to support Wiltshire Police, our CSW teams, those individuals who volunteer their time to make their communities a better place.

“By some simple restructuring and alignment, I hope we can really make a difference for our volunteers and in their communities too.”

This commitment builds on the Commissioner’s announcement for greater speeding enforcement in September.

He pledged investment in extra enforcement camera equipment and the recruitment of two, new, civilian speeding enforcement officers to boost enforcement in Wiltshire and act as a deterrent to persistent speeders.

“Tackling speeding and increasing road safety is important to Wiltshire’s residents and they have been telling me more needs to be done,” Mr Wilkinson said. “As I have always said, I want to be judged on delivery and I hope Wiltshire’s residents will soon start to see the benefit of that!”

And, to mark the start of national Road Safety Week next week, Wiltshire’s CSW volunteers have been invited to an online conference to talk through the new plans.