North Yorkshire villagers campaign for fixed cameras to catch speeders

Campaigners have called for fixed speed cameras to be installed in a North Yorkshire village because police camera vans were not there regularly enough.

The county's force is one of just four in England to only use mobile cameras.

But some residents in Cowling, near Keighley, have said the police speed vans were situated in the village "only 10% of the time".

North Yorkshire Police said mobile speed cameras were just one of a "range of tactics" it used to tackle speeders.

However, local resident Gillian Taylor said villagers wanted "constant enforcement".

"People are worried because schoolchildren live here and they've got to cross this road," she said.

"A couple of years ago we asked for a lollipop person to help the children cross the road and we were told it was too dangerous."

Gillian Taylor said villagers wanted the "constant enforcement" provided by a fixed speed camera

Meanwhile, Green Party councillor Andy Brown said the "pounding-through of traffic" in the village was the biggest issue raised by voters he had spoken to during his election campaign last year.

Mr Brown added that the problem of speeding drivers was one which not only affected Cowling.

"Across the whole of North Yorkshire, there are villages which have fast traffic going through all day, all night," he said.

"Any place where it is happening so regularly needs fixed or average speed cameras there to deal with the problem."

North Yorkshire Police said mobile cameras were introduced "following extensive research to find the most appropriate way to tackle speeding and speed related collisions in the county".

The force added: "Due to the geography of North Yorkshire - we police 6,000 miles of road - mobile safety cameras were considered more flexible and appropriate for a number of reasons, including the seasonal nature of some of our road safety issues.

"They are deployed to sites where there is a history of speed-related collisions, where the local community have raised concerns about speeding in their neighbourhood, and to routes where motorcyclists have been killed or seriously injured."

The latest government figures show 422 people were killed or seriously injured on North Yorkshire's roads in 2021.

Road safety charity Brake said in a third of fatal crashes excess speed was a contributory factor.