SPEEDING on streets in Saddleworth villages is the “number one issue” that people raise, according to one local councillor.
There have been long-standing calls to reduce the speed limit on residential roads to 20 miles per hour and councillors clashed last month over a council-wide implementation of the restriction.
Several new traffic calming measures have been imposed after Oldham Council was awarded more than £3.8 million of funding last year to improve the borough’s roads and infrastructure.
The Independent has also reported that applications are now being sought from people across Saddleworth to get involved in the Community Speed Watch scheme, which is now being rolled out in Oldham by Greater Manchester Police.
Run by officers but operated by community volunteers, the aim is to make motorists who speed through neighbourhoods aware of the impact of their actions, and the danger they pose to other road users and pedestrians.
A team of local residents who are willing to volunteer a small amount of time each week are trained and issued with speed detection equipment to monitor speeds.
The owners of vehicles caught driving over the speed limit will be sent a warning letter from GMP, along with advice to help change their driving behaviour.
Mark Kenyon, the Liberal Democrat Councillor who represents Grotton, Springhead and Lees, says he has been pushing for the scheme’s introduction for the last three years.
“Speeding on our residential streets is the number one issue people talk to us about,” said Cllr Kenyon, who is also a Shadow Cabinet Member for Economy and Enterprise.
“With good reason, some of the speeds that all of us have witnessed on the streets that we all live on are terrifying.
“When I read about Community Speed Watch, I knew we had to have it in Saddleworth and Lees.
“There’s a bigger debate about police funding, road infrastructure and speeding across Greater Manchester, but this is something practical we can do to address people’s concerns now.”
This is sheer lunacy.
I walk through most areas of Saddleworth on most days and at most times of the day and this is a, “problem,” that exists almost entirely in this Councillor’s imagination.
For the record I don’t drive so I’ve no personal sake in this at all.
This is just cheap and tedious publicity seeking and little more, but then imaginary problems that don’t really exist in the first place are far easier and cheaper to fix and to take credit for having fixed than real a difficult problems such a for example the desperate need in Oldham for new Social Housing and so on.
Hear, hear!