Winchelsea Speed Watch

• Who we are and what we are seeking to achieve and why we exist
• Winchelsea's traffic problem
• What we have done

What we have done

In 2002, East Sussex County Council agreed to our request to review the possibility of a one-way system on Strand Hill. Due to cuts in their highways budget, we are still waiting.

In 2003, we applied to join the Sussex Community Speed Watch scheme. This involves volunteers monitoring traffic using laser speed guns under the supervision of the police, who provide a risk assessment, training and insurance. Speeding drivers are reported to the police, who send up to two warning letters and then target the driver for prosecution (only the police can book a driver for an offence). The scheme has been very successful in other counties and in the Sussex pilot scheme at Ringmer.

Unfortunately, our application to join the Sussex Community Speed Watch was delayed, first, by an assessment of the lessons of the Ringmer pilot scheme and, then, by the refusal of Icklesham Parish Council in April 2005 to provide a letter supporting Winchelsea's membership of Community Speed Watch. Despite support from all three Winchelsea ward councillors and the local police, councillors from the other wards of the parish voted against the request. The Council's Standing Orders required that we wait six months before repeating the request. The second request (in October 2005) was backed by a petition signed by over 150 residents, in the face of which, the Council gave way. However, their delay meant that our application had been pre-empted by a national review of the Community Speed Watch scheme by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), during which time, all new applications were frozen.

Fortunately, in early 2007, Sussex Police decided to re-activate the Community Speed Watch in the county and Winchelsea's application was approved in September 2007. Icklesham Parish Council refused to contribute any money towards the cost of buying a speed gun, but we have raised the money (about £2,360) from police grants and donations by residents. Community Speed Watch started in Winchelsea on 20th May 2008.

While Community Speed Watch was being reviewed by ACPO, in order to demonstrate the strength of Winchelsea's commitment, we undertook our own traffic survey for the week starting 27th February 2006 using a hired speed gun. This was highly productive. It not only demonstrated our ability to mobilise a large number of volunteers (up to 40) but the results of the survey gave us an invaluable insight into the nature of our traffic problem. Moreover, by observing traffic at close quarters for several hours a day over a week, we started to piece together some practical solutions. The data from this survey was confirmed by an automatic radar survey undertaken by the County Council in 2008.

In February 2007, we took the opportunity to borrow a mobile speed indicator device (SID) from East Sussex County Council in order to conduct periodic speed monitoring exercises (unlike the Community Speed Watch, SID monitoring does not record the registration numbers of speeding drivers but tries to encourage them to slow down by displaying their speed to them).

To our surprise, in 2007, we secured a grant from the parish council for £550 to pay for a survey and risk assessment by East Sussex County Council of a proposed site for a vehicle activated sign (VAS) --- which is simply a fixed SID --- by the public toilets and lay-by on Monks Walk. If the County Council approves the site, we will be asking the parish council to finance the VAS itself. We have also asked the Highways Agency to install a VAS on the A259(T) by the village hall, which they have committed to do next year. We are also looking to the Winchelsea Town Plan to propose a comprehensive traffic scheme.

Who we are | Winchelsea's traffic problem