Safe Speed Forums

I had a meeting this afternoon with two senior Police officers: (Chief Inspector Arnott and Chief Superintendent Darcy) at Northern Constabulary Police Headquarters.

It was certainly a friendy meeting, and in the large part a fairly open discussion. The following points were made:

Darcy said:

* The partnership will go ahead, and will start on the 1st July.
* The strength of Traffic Police is to be increased
* He will not permit "lies" or misleading road safety information to reach the public. He will maintain control of the information that the Partnership puts out.

It is quite clear that they believe the DfT information, vectored through the Scottish Office, including such things as "35% reduction in accidents at speed camera sites".

They think the damage to the Police / public relationship is a minor concern, perhaps along the line of: you can't make an omlette without breaking eggs. They doubt that the concerns expressed by the Police Federation reflect the views of a majority.

They think public opinion is behind speed cameras. They don't seem to have noticed that those opinions have been deliberately fostered by incompetent government messages.

They told me indirectly that it was not their job to question Government strategy, and I should take my case to politicians instead.

I made it very clear that I wasn't against the Police, against speed limits or against intelligent roads Policing.

I left a few introductory documents for them to consider.

I begged them to allocate 8 hours of management time to examine my evidence but could not get any such agreement.

So no real progress, except to develop friendly contact and a fair degree of mutual respect.

Next, I shall write to the Chief Constable and implore him to allocate 8 hours of management time to examine the evidence and report.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

Did he give any indication of how he is going to do that?

So Highland regional council voted in favour of joining, then?

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Keep right on to the end of the road ...

Unfortunately, yes. In February. See:

http://www.safespeed.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=401

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

Ish. He said he was going to remain in control. - I understood him to mean that he would have an overall management role.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

Next step would be to find out where they are considering cameras and keep an eye on the statistics, I'm a regular visitor to the Nairn area and I dare say they will put a few on the A96 especially between Inverness and Nairn.

Andrew