“I fully support the work that the volunteers from the village are doing and hopefully their presence will have a permanent effect on speeding traffic over a period of time”.
Cathy Bakewell – County Councillor
"This is an excellent initiative, which will help to make all of us think carefully before driving too fast through villages such as East Chinnock. People are inclined to think of the A30 as a road on which they can drive quite fast, but we must all think of local residents and pedestrians and keep to the speed limits. Seeing regular speed monitoring in this area will make people think twice and slow down - and that is good news for road safety and for the people of the village."
David Laws M.P.
"Speed watch is an effective way of reminding all car drivers, including myself, that the first priority for motorists is the welfare and safety of the pedestrians within our communities and I am delighted that we now have a scheme in my own village. It provides a good wake up call to drivers and enables frequent and persistent offenders to be targeted by the Police. As an accident prevention measure it is of proven effectiveness and will undoubtedly increase safety on the A30 which has not got a good track record in this area.”
Ric Pallister - Deputy Leader South Somerset District Council
Latest Progress Report
East Chinnock CSW achieved its first full year of operations on 10 Feb 2011. We have 18 trained villagers, most of who manage 3 or 4 and in some cases more, 1 hour sessions per month checking the village roads and reporting speeding traffic. Participation is strictly voluntary and volunteers are trained by the local Road Policing Unit (RPU) Officers in Yeovil. The local CSW enjoys the active support of our local Police Beat Manager, the RPU and Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs), who often join our volunteers at the roadside during a CSW session.
In our first year, we carried out 128 sessions totalling 124½ hours and counted 81,622 vehicles passing through the village. Of those we reported 615 vehicles speeding well above the 30mph speed limit. It is very apparent that the CSW has an immediate traffic calming effect when volunteers are on the roadside and there appears to be a general realisation with regular through-traffic that East Chinnock is serious about maintaining road safety within the Village by enforcing the speed limits.
