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East Boldre's Community SpeedWatch (CSW) group was formed in response to local residents’ concerns over road safety due to speeding motorists. Speeding is also a significant factor in the deaths of commoners’ animals on the roads each year.

 

Community SpeedWatch is an educational scheme, not enforcement. It is the police's first tier response to speeding issues.

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The presence of a roadside SpeedWatch team encourages passing motorists to slow down. Where they are active regularly CSW teams have been shown to be effective in reducing speeding even when not present as locals modify their driving behaviour.

 

Additionally, the data gathered by the CSW teams provides factual information about the scale of the issue locally and provides a means of assessing the effectiveness of any actions taken to address it.

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Does it Work?

Rather than take our word for it here's some statistics from Sway's SpeedWatch team over the last 7 years....

  • The proportion of drivers obeying the speed limit has improved steadily from 52% in 2015, to 66% in 2021.

  • The percentage of drivers recorded exceeding the threshold speed has reduced from 21% in 2015 to 12% in 2021.

  • Police follow with offenders has improved (although 2020's most recent figure shows a drop).

Working In Partnership with the Police

Community SpeedWatch is a locally driven initiative where members of the community become Police Support Volunteers and work with the Police to monitor speeds of vehicles at specific locations. The initiative allows the community to address the issue of speeding by becoming actively involved in road safety and working in partnership with Hampshire Constabulary.​

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How it works

Our volunteers measure the speeds of oncoming vehicles with a highly accurate, radar based device that displays the approaching driver's speed. The time, registration, make and model of any speeding vehicles are recorded and all passing vehicles are counted.

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Information on vehicles travelling at or exceeding the threshold limit is submitted to the police database for follow up.

  • 30 mph limit - threshold limit = 35 mph

  • 40 mph limit - threshold limit = 46 mph 

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The police write to first time offenders and may take further action against repeat offenders.

 

Please note - while signed 'East Boldre SpeedWatch Coordinator', the letters are sent by the police. If you wish to discuss a letter you receive please call them on 101 or email speedwatch@hampshire.pnn.police.uk.

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Please do not confront our volunteers - we are simply concerned local residents who voluntarily donate our time and effort in a bid to reduce the problem of speeding motorists. We do not set policy, design letters or in any way have control over anything that the Police do with information recorded and passed on to them by us.

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The police are advised of our planned sessions and may choose to attend - unlike our team of volunteers they can take on the spot action against the drivers of speeding vehicles - warnings, fines etc.

​Get Involved

We currently have a team of 13 volunteers but to maximise our effectiveness by regularly covering multiple sites we want to grow the team to share the workload.

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Please get in touch if road safety matters to you and you have a couple of hours to spare a month. All of our volunteers are trained by the police and are covered by police insurance.

Local CSW Approved Locations

There are currently 3 police approved locations within East Boldre parish where we are permitted to carry out SpeedWatch activities.

 

We are working with the police to increase this number based on local road traffic accident and animal casualty information.

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In the police risk assessment of potential sites, considerations include:

  • CSW teams cannot 'hide' from motorists - there must be good sight lines (100m+) for us to see and be seen by oncoming vehicles.

  • There needs to be somewhere safe for the CSW volunteers to stand beside the road and space for the equipment to be set up.​

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Thanks to Our Generous Supporters

While supported by Hampshire Constabulary in terms of training and procedures we are responsible for acquiring the speed indication equipment ourselves.

 

We have jointly purchased our equipment with Pilley's CSW team to minimise costs while maximising the equipment usage.

 

We would like to express our sincere thanks for funding from:

  • East Boldre and Boldre parish councils

  • Cllr Keith Mans (HCC) and Cllr Michael Harris (NFDC)

  • Friends of the New Forest (NFA)

  • The Commoners Defence Association

  • Pilley SpeedWatch team

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