Just sometimes I do feel totally let down by the police and tonight was one such time. I arrived late at the Tilehurst NAG (Neighbourhood Action Group) at the tail end of a discussion on using speed guns. It turns out that ACPO (Association of Chief Police Officers) have ruled that no civilians should be allowed to use mobile speed guns. It means that not only can residents not use speed guns themselves, but neither can local PCSOs. Apparently we need to wait for the already hard-pressed police officers to find time to spend an hour or two tracking speeding motorists. As if they have not got enough other things to do.

As a community we have been trying to help the police tackle what is one of Tilehurst’s three main issues, that of speeding cars (for reference the others are vandalism and rowdy youths). I think ACPO are afraid of ‘civilians’ using speed guns and being involved in an accident but they would all need to be trained up first anyway. I just think that occasionally the police need help to perform their duties and they should be glad that the community actually wants to work with them.

So for the moment we cannot push ahead with our intended use of the speed guns. We had planned actions in various roads in Tilehurst where speeding motorists would have been tracked and then written to by our local police inspector pointing out that they had been caught speeding and the dangers they were causing to residents.

Mow it seems we will need to tyake this battle forward to Westminster and see if we cannot get more sense from ministers on the use of speed guns.