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Villages unite in call for average speed cameras

BBC A speed camera sign on a grass verge next to a single carriageway road. A grey car is travelling along the road next to the sign. There is a hedge in front of a residential property on the other side of the road.BBC
Police currently use mobile cameras to catch speeding drivers in North Yorkshire

Fixed average speed cameras should be installed across North Yorkshire, according to a group of more than 20 town and parish councils.

Road collisions saw 40 deaths in the county during 2023 - the highest number since 2017, Department for Transport statistics have shown.

Councillors from villages including Ampleforth, Settle and Shipton by Beningbrough have written to the mayor of York and North Yorkshire to ask for cameras to be added to enforce speed limits.

The county currently has no fixed cameras and police use mobile units to catch drivers travelling over the speed limit.

A woman in a dark jacket and with blond hair looks at the camera
Campaigner Gillian Taylor said there had been a number of crashes in the village of Cowling

Gillian Taylor, a road safety campaigner in Cowling, said trying to stop people speeding without the threat of fixed average speed monitoring, was "not working".

“There is a telegraph pole at the other side of the village that has had to be replaced four times in 18 months," Ms Taylor said.

"We’ve had cars going through walls, on their roofs, but by the luck of the universe there hasn’t been a [death], and it seems bizarre to be waiting for that.”

A man with short light-coloured hair, wearing glasses and a shirt and a padded jacket stands on the pavement next to a road. Buildings line both sides of the road behind him. On the left a grey car is passing close to the man.
Gregory Butt, the chair of Gargrave Parish Council, has urged the mayor and deputy mayor of North Yorkshire to take action on speeding

Gregory Butt, the chair of Gargrave Parish Council, said it was “frankly embarrassing" that there were no fixed cameras in the county.

“There’s a dogma in North Yorkshire which needs to be broken, and the only people who can do that are the mayor and the deputy mayor, and police need to actually be given the tools to tackle this," he said.

Lucy Straker, from road safety charity Brake, said lower speed limits should also be introduced.

“We want to encourage local authorities such as North Yorkshire to look at other areas like in London and Wales where they’ve put in 20mph speed limits around residential areas,” she said.

PA Media A black sign with lights reading 30 slow down at the side of a road. A slightly blurred blue car is on the road beneath the sign. A hedge in front of residential buildings on the opposite side of the street.PA Media
Road safety charity Brake said it wanted lower speed limits to be introduced in areas like North Yorkshire

Jo Coles, York and North Yorkshire Deputy Mayor for Policing, Fire and Crime, said road safety was a “hugely important” issue for communities across the region.

She was scheduled to meet with the York and North Yorkshire Road Safety Partnership to "hear about the work being done to make our roads safer, so we can better understand what else we might need to look at in York and North Yorkshire going forward”.

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