Plea for cameras in village where supercars speed

In the village of Cowling, residents are woken at night by the sound of speeding supercars racing along the 30mph main road.

The parish council is desperate for fixed speed cameras and has gathered its own data about the number of vehicles ignoring the limit.

In a single day, volunteers recorded thousands of drivers exceeding 30mph, and 380 were clocked doing more than 50mph.

Carolyn Zeyrek, a parish councillor, said she had been told by North Yorkshire Council that the village, between Skipton and Keighley, did not qualify for a camera or other restrictions as there had not been enough road deaths there.

"It shouldn't have to be that somebody has to die or somebody has to be seriously injured - some people have been seriously injured - for some action to be taken," she said.

North Yorkshire, famously, does not have any fixed speed cameras, with enforcement carried out by mobile camera vans. The fleet of 11, however, cannot be operated at night - which Cowling residents say is when racing drivers shoot through the village.

More than 100 parish councils have joined a call for permanent devices to be installed, and the elected mayor for York and North Yorkshire, David Skaith, has expressed his frustration at the situation.

North Yorkshire Council said it was reviewing the findings of speed surveys and working with police, while City of York Council said it was working to ensure "the maximum benefit for road safety as part of the rollout".

A trial of a fixed camera in Sherburn, on the A64 near Malton, was abandoned last year after it was vandalised on its first day of operation.

York and North Yorkshire's Combined Authority has dedicated £2m to the county's first fixed and average speed cameras over the next four years.

Gillian Taylor, who co-ordinates the county-wide campaign group Average and Fixed Speed Cameras for North Yorkshire, said "supercars" were often driven through Cowling at night.

"They'll race on both lanes and even if they're not speeding, the noise is horrendous," she said.

"We're talking about half past 11 at night, 2am, 4am."

Fellow Cowling resident Robert Rowntree added that drivers were "allowed to speed with impunity at night-time".

"No-one's ever here to stop them," he said.

"We find the fixed speed cameras are better than the vans because they're there permanently."

Skaith welcomed the "enthusiasm and energy" shown by campaigners.

"I feel that same frustration," he said.

"I've done my role in this, it's now for the two local authorities to get behind it, basically pull their fingers out and get on with the work of delivering the safety that so many of our community are crying out for.

"It'll be for them to identify where those areas are, the right systems in place, the right policies in place to actually slow the traffic down."

Asked when residents could expect cameras to be installed, he said: "Frankly, I was hoping it would already be in place, if I'm being brutally honest."

Concerns raised by communities were "always" listened to, according to North Yorkshire Council's executive member for highways and transport.

Conservative councillor Malcolm Taylor said: "In response to residents' concerns, we have introduced a 40mph speed limit on the approach to Cowling from the west and a 40mph speed limit on the approach to Glusburn from the west in addition to the 30mph limit through the village."

He said several traffic islands had been installed on the main route through Cowling to "help control vehicle speeds and protect pedestrians".

"We work closely with our road safety partners, including North Yorkshire Police, who are responsible for the enforcement of speed limits.

"As such, we have carried out speed surveys and, together with the police, we are reviewing their findings which we have also shared with local residents."

City of York Council said it was "working as part of the York and North Yorkshire Road Safety Partnership to implement static speed cameras across the region".

A spokesperson added: "We are working collectively to ensure that speed cameras are installed sensibly and to ensure we achieve the maximum benefit for road safety as part of the rollout whilst fulfilling all the necessary operational requirements around procurement, maintenance and ongoing management of the cameras."

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