Humberside Police and the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner are expanding an automatic speed camera network across the East Riding following a highly successful trial in Bubwith.
Plans are underway to expand a network of automatic speed cameras across the East Riding this summer, following a successful trial in the village of Bubwith.
The Humberside Police and Crime Commissioner, Jonathan Evison, has launched a grant scheme to help fund the installation of ten new AutoSpeedWatch Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras. The expansion could see the devices installed in villages along the East Yorkshire coast, with places like Driffield already benefiting from previous road safety funding initiatives.
The cameras aim to educate motorists by automatically generating warning letters for those caught exceeding the speed limit. During the two-year trial in Bubwith, the technology successfully reduced the number of drivers speeding from forty per cent to just thirteen per cent.
Superintendent Gary Foster of Humberside Police explained how the solar-powered system operates and the process for dealing with repeat offenders. He said:
"Auto Speed Watch is ANPR cameras that the PCC has kindly started to fund. They're solar powered, so they operate between obviously dawn and dusk.
It's been tried with reduction 40% to 13% of driver speed in over two years at the site. The letters are auto-generated and on the third letter we will go and hand deliver that from the local policing team to say you've been caught now three times. This is now going to be enforcement.
But that will help us as we build up those numbers of cameras, continue to identify sites where speeding's occurring, will reduce speeding driver behaviour."
The Road Safety Measures Grant allows parish and town councils, as well as organisations like Community Speedwatch, to bid for half the funding required for the new cameras, with the Commissioner's office covering the remaining balance.
Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner for Humberside, Leo Hammond says the cameras will be rolled out in batches of ten to ensure the police can cope with the postal bill for sending out speeding letters after the postal charges for the trial site reached a quarter of a million pounds.
"The actual camera systems are very cheap in the grand scheme of things, they are £799 each, and the commissioner is funding those 50%, and then the Parish and Town council the other 50%.
The main issue is the cost on the police of issuing letters and then obviously the enforcement of that.
So we are just launching them in tranches of 10 to ensure that the police can cope with the demand of enforcement because what we saw when it went up originally, there was a massive spike in demand on the force and then that's obviously tailed off as the camera is embedded and drivers know the camera is there and they are no longer getting caught.
So we're hoping that's going to happen again with these 10 new sites over summer. If that does happen, then we're in a position for the force to be able to take on more cameras hopefully at the end of this year, that's our plan."
Despite the initial success in altering driver behaviour, the administrative burden of sending physical mail remains a significant challenge for the force.
Superintendent Gary Foster highlighted the financial impact of issuing the physical notices. He said:
"The postage cost was really significant, so Bubwith is a quarter million pound postage cost.
That, obviously, has to come out of some area of funding.
Ideally, email will be the way to to do this. If we can automate it, that would be much easier and obviously cost effective, but at the minute, the postage cost is the key issue."
The first tranche of ten cameras will be rolled out this summer, prioritising areas that already have active Community Speedwatch teams. These teams operate on roads with speed limits of forty miles per hour or slower. If the deployment proves successful and manageable for the police, further cameras could be introduced across the region by the end of the year.
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