Was chatting to a mate today who reckons the speedwatch knobbers near him (North Essex) have been upgraded. Now if they catch you, you get a proper ticket. Also they no longer put up “Speedwatch” signs. They even get to wear black shirts with “Essex police” on them, although they are not police. Still with yellow high-vizs.
Mate said some speedwatch bods still operate, but with additional training they get to play at being policemen for real. (Sort of)
However the article stops short of saying they will issue tickets… When I saw this on news for a different area, if you got ‘caught’, you basically got a warning letter (‘raising awareness’)
But if they do start allowing people to issue tickets, it’s completely moronic…
I only found out about these knobs last year…had spent 2 days at Caldwell park racetrack…1 day after getting back got a letter through from Lincolnshire police …you vehicle was observed travelling at excessive speed ,no action to be taken this time blah blah…
When I looked it was from the first village as you leave Caldwell park ,impossible I was speeding had spent 2 days riding bike around track and sleeping in the van so was pretty tired also had bike strapped down in back of van so no crazy driving.
What got me was how quick the letter arrived literally with in 2 days …jokers
I regularly come into contact with the West Bergolt Militia at the southern end of the B1508, I always acknowledge them by giving the appropriate hand signal in recognition of the work they do. Shame on their head honcho too who moon lights as a motorcyclist on his 1200 Bonne’.
In West Bergholt you can also receive letters of scorn for parking up on the double yellows they recently laid all around the village. It is questionable whether these letters are official or not because they are hand written on scrap paper but they are headed up ‘Parking Enforcement’, signed 'For and on behalf of West Bergholt Parish Council and have the West Bergholt crest in the lower right hand corner although this does resemble a sad face smiley.
Ok let me play devils advocate here and poke the fire a bit. Isnt it a good thing that citizens are helping keeping the roads safe by helping to identifying speeding vehicles.
Dont get me wrong I aint no angel and not passing judgement just saying 40 is 40 and if you get caught out, wellllll, thats your bad luck.
Or am I completely missing something here, but why the dislike.
I have no issue with those whose job it is (traffic plod) trying to enforce the speed limits in places they think it is dangerous to speed. And where there is a proven issue / risk to others.
But these bell ends are 100% wannabe plod who get a boner playing at being the police. They’ll never got in cos they haven’t got the ability. But they can don a jacket and pretend they are plod for a day. Knobsters all day long.
I sort-of agree. So many people ignore the 30 mph limits in villages that I can understand residents getting annoyed. And I thought it was a rule of ride outs that when it comes to villages those limits should be followed, so it seems that bikers also agree with those limits in such places too.
But, and in response to bluelagos, the police do not have the resources to park a car in every single village. So if they are not doing anything then what else can residents do but take matters into their own hands?
