COUNCILS Will Now Issue Speeding Fines Of £130 To Anyone Driving Faster Than 20mph

A London council will start issuing £130 speeding penalties to anyone driving faster than 20mph as drivers fear they will be fleeced by authorities.

Wandsworth Council is launching a pilot scheme where it can give tickets to motorists exceeding the 20mph limit in residential areas, roads which often have fewer fixed cameras and mobile patrols from police.

The new power, lasting for up to eight months, will see the council stealing the £130 fine instead of it going into a central government pot. Penalties are usually administered by the police.

If considered a success, the scheme could be rolled out across London, where almost half of the streets have a 20mph limit.

Drivers will not be given three points on their licence, or have to attend a speed awareness course, under the scheme.

The AA has said that speeding should not be dealt with like a parking ticket.

Joe Ventre, from the Taxpayers’ Alliance, also told a newspaper outlet that speeding enforcement should not become fishing trips to secure money for councils and that motorists should be rightly concerned that speeding penalties will be more about filling council coffers than keeping roads safe.

He added that the cost of running the pilot shouldn’t put extra burdens on taxpayers.

The Labour-run council is targeting two residential roads where locals gripe about speeding motorists: Priory Lane in Roehampton and Wimbledon Park Road.

The former is popular among cyclists travelling between Roehampton and Richmond Park while the latter leads to the renowned tennis grounds.

Studies in both locations found that one in four motorists disregard the speed limit along Priory Lane and one in five do so along Wimbledon Park Road.

Wandsworth Council leader Simon Hogg said that speeding is one of the greatest problems for residents.

He told a newspaper outlet that if it’s considered a success, they will look to make it permanent and carry out enforcement in other parts of the borough where they know vehicle speeds are excessive.

All roads within London’s congestion charge zone have a limit of 20mph, with it seen as the default maximum in most of the 33 boroughs.

Transport for London announced that by March next year, a further 17 miles of roads in Camden, Hackney, Haringey, Islington and Tower Hamlets will have the same speed limit.

Wandsworth will lower the penalty from £130 to £65 if it’s paid within a fortnight, with notification letters being issued in the first few weeks, as motorists become aware of the changes.

This appears a total waste of time when we could be dealing much better to prevent knife and drug offences in our community, but they’re now scared to arrest people in case they offend them, it’s embarrassing, but this is council enforcement, who obviously think they are the police.

What they should be doing is making knife crime a financial penalty instead.

This is just a money-making racket, it has nothing to do with road safety at all. Driving 30mph isn’t speeding though, and to reduce roads to 20mph makes commuting even more unbearable, but we will all go along with it nonetheless.

This is all extremely lucrative, along with the Congestion Charge and the ULEZ charge, and any other taxes we pay. Next, they’ll be charging us for breathing fresh air, I’m sure that’s in the pipeline somewhere, although there’s no such thing as fresh air because it’s been contaminated with Benzene, Xylene, Sulphur Dioxide, Carbon Monoxide and other cancerous volatile organic particulates, and that’s not just from cars, although they are blamed all the time.