Safe Speed Forums

North Wales chief constable Richard Brunstrom is considering a blanket 40mph speed limit throughout Snowdonia National Park, he says in his online blog.

Richard Brunstrom blames the ‘all-pervading and incessant high-pitched whine of the motorbikes’ for ‘substantially spoiling the ambient grandeur’ and says a blanket new lower limit may fix the problem.

The blog entry says: ‘Perhaps a 40mph speed limit throughout the entire Park would resolve the engine noise issue - and a general slowing down of all traffic might be a further end in itself… I’m going to consider this some more.’

Brunstrom also says bike engine noise is ‘Quite remarkably intrusive’ and ‘enough to really irritate.’

Richard Brunstrom has a history of using his blog to attack motorcyclists. Last year he said: ‘Anyone who ventures onto the roads of the UK will be aware of the quite dreadful driving exhibited by so many motorcyclists.’

He is being investigated by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) for using images of a decapitated motorcyclist to launch a road safety campaign without asking the dead riders’ family. He faces possible dismissal depending on the outcome, which is due within weeks.

See his blog entry in full here: http://www.north-wales.police.uk/en/blogs/viewblog.asp?UID=1&CID=227

‘A good walk spoiled’.

I took advantage of the windless weekend weather to get up into the hills, twice. On Saturday afternoon I went up Siabod, coming back along the summit ridge, a remarkably pleasant easy scramble. There were quite a few people on the top but the air was still, the silence broken only by the calls of the ravens - and the all-pervading and incessant high-pitched whine of the motorbikes revving up and down through the gears on the roads beneath. The other traffic was almost inaudible, but the bikes were most certainly not. Quite remarkably intrusive.

On Sunday I got up early and was on the top of Tryfan, my favourite hill, before 0700hrs. The air was still again, and this time the silence was total. Bliss. I carried on over the Glyderau, then Y Garn and finally Elidir Fawr. A wonderful walk. I returned from Elidir Fawr to Ogwen Cottage via the summit of Y Garn again - but by then the bikes were filling the whole Ogwen valley with noise. Not quite so badly as the previous day perhaps (they have to go slowly at Ogwen Cottage), but enough to really irritate, even while on the summits at over 1000m. It is astonishing how the sound carries, to my mind substantially spoiling the ambient grandeur.

Mark Twain was of course famously referring to golf - he lived in another age before the ubiquity of the internal combustion engine - but I hope he would understand my borrowing of his phrase as my title today. National Parks are supposed to be for quiet enjoyment (amongst other things). Noise pollution is a real nuisance, and the cause of much urban friction with which we in the police routinely have to deal. Traffic noise is part of this problem, and is often controlled near residential areas by the imposition of environmental speed limits and low-noise surfaces (the A55 through Colwyn Bay being a case in point). Perhaps a 40mph speed limit throughout the entire Park would resolve the engine noise issue - and a general slowing down of all traffic might be a further end in itself, giving the National Park more of an identity as an oasis of a calmer life, slightly detached from the everyday hustle and bustle elsewhere. I’m going to consider this some more.

‘Perhaps a 40mph speed limit throughout the entire Park would resolve the engine noise issue

all-pervading and incessant high-pitched whine of the motorbikes

I would remind everyone that the New Forest National Park pretty much has a blanket limit of 40mph except for the trunk roads.

Lets all ride past Blunderstorm's house at 30mph in first gear!

He's probably reduced that area to 20mph with a liberal gathering of speed cameras!

Our Dick needs to get a grip on reality here. By the way of all our toys ... our Jags are the quietest "purrers" The Stag just murmurs in stealth - apart from the one I'm keeping for Wildy's cousin Siegli. He has a first edition. I have one of the last off he conveyor belt. Both prone to the Stag problem of engine

I hope it is a "proper" Stag engine! (They sound gorgeous) but I, as a mechanic, am fully aware of their foibles!

From memories of doing similar walks in my younger years, I wonder if Mr B will also be campaigning for the RAF to avoid Snowdonia, because the traffic noise rising up from the valley floor was nothing compared to the roar of Hawks, Jaguars, Harriers and Tornados, or the deep rumbling of a Hercules, flying by at/slightly below head height... And by god, did it make a long walk through the mountains complete to see/hear them go by!

I wish someone would shove that C**t over a cliff and be done with it....

But would he exceed the speed limit on the way down ??