We are getting average speed cameras in the village!

Where, when, how…..

Bedford Borough Council are broke. They formed a policy last year or possibly the year before that they would no longer finance the installation of average speed cameras. The reason, apart from the astronomical cost, is that Central Government get ALL the revenue generated from the speeding fines. So the Borough have to fork out £125K, or more, pay about £4k per year for calibration and maintenance and get absolutely nothing back from the revenue generated.

Our speed signs gather data and they have registered 86mph on both the Odell Road and Mill Road.  We also are fully aware of the speeding on the High Street and Park Lane. These seem to be the priority speeding spots.

Odell Road is a priority ,as it is this road, by far, that has the highest number of pedestrians. Not surprising if you consider the school children. Also there seems to be an element of morons using this road to make a lot of noise revving their engines to gather high speed in low gears. Annoying! And dangerous!

This has been a matter of discussion, I am led to believe, for about five years. The Parish Council have agreed to pay for the installation of speed cameras in the village. Finances dictate that we need to prioritise as we simply do not have the cash to install on all the roads that need them. 

Where is the money coming from? It is not coming from your Council Tax.

When there is a development of housing, the developers have obligation to pay two sums to the Borough a s we as a village get a proportion. These are S106 money and Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL). 

S106 is an amount of cash provided for the upkeep and maintenance of areas such as playgrounds, sports facilities and so on that have been created as part of the development. The playground on the Fox Hedge estate for instance. CIL money is a capital budget that provides money to counter the effects of the new development on the infrastructure of the village. 

To give some perspective to this, the Hill Farm development S106 money if close to £500k and is in respect of the new sports facilities and allotments that are being created on the new estate. The rules on this are not so tight that we can’t spend the money on similar issues so long as they are in the village and fit in with fiscal regulations.

The CIL money relating to the Hill Farm Development is £8m. The Village’s share of this is £2m. BUT A question I have ,which will form part of separate discussion, is what do the Borough intend to spend this on?

The Average speed cameras in Odell Road are costing £127k plus £4k per year for maintenance and calibration. The £4k come out of the Village’s share of the Council Tax and will be budgeted accordingly. The capital comes from CIL money. CIL monies are regarded as ‘reserved funds’ as they can only be spent on this type of project. 

Belway and Redrow, the developers at Hill Farm are obliged to pay the Borough £85k, before the first house is occupied, as a contribution to the cost of average speed cameras on Mill Road. As we have to use the City Engineers for the arrangements to get these average speed cameras. Our job is to make sure the Borough honour their legal responsibilities and spend it on this intended purpose. The Mill Road cameras will be from the new roundabout to the bottom of Kennel Hill.

The City Engineers have let us down! We were PROMISED in a PC meeting with the Head of Highways and the City Engineers that the Odell Road cameras would be installed by the end of the school holidays. We have been chasing this but now Doug McMurdough is following up with the Highways Department. 

Once these have been sorted out we will get on with the speeding issues on Park Lane. The discussion at the moment is including the idea of speed bumps. Let us have your ideas.