Police cracking down on Northside speeders
Speeds of up to 74mph have been recorded along Northside, Vale, as police crack down on the speeding blackspot.
For residents of nearby Trafalgar Road, the arrests come after weeks of cars and motorbikes racing up and down the road, which has a speed limit of just 25mph.
One man, who asked not to be named, even kept a log over the noise over a period of days and forwarded it to the police and the Vale constables.
He started keeping track at the start of June, but things had not improved by the time he again contacted the police on 1 July.
‘After I went to bed around 10.30pm it started out with revving of car and bike engines then screaming up and down Northside,’ he said.
‘Then tooting of horns and banging music. This went on for some time. I don’t know if you had any calls from residents there but they must have heard it. Must I go out and confront these ignorant drivers?’
Police started speed checks in the area at the beginning of last week.
On Wednesday evening an officer on mobile patrol stopped and arrested a 25-year-old motorcyclist for riding at 74mph. The man has been charged with riding in a dangerous manner.
Earlier in the week, on Monday and Tuesday evening, the same officer dealt with five other speeding cases in the same place, including a car at 68mph and a motorcycle at 50mph.
‘Driving at these speeds is incredibly dangerous,’ they said.
The arrests follow years of speeding problems in the area. A number of motorists have been prosecuted in the Magistrate’s Court over the last few years for speeding.
But residents say problems have been worse this summer.
Another Trafalgar Road resident said he and his wife often walked their dog around the old Quayside site.
‘For the last month or so we’ve seen loads of Kevs roaring up and down the road. We thought they must have changed the speed limit to 70mph,’ they said.
Phyl Mathews was house-sitting for her daughter in the area.
‘She’s told me that they’ve had people screeching up and down there,’ she said.
‘She and her husband have been a bit intimidated by these people. They’ve also had speeding outside their house.’
Lawrence Hill has lived near the road with his family for seven years.
‘I’ve often heard it,’ he said.
‘I go for a walk sometimes in the evenings and hear racers going along that road. It seems like it’s mainly teenagers on bikes with loud exhausts.’
Vale parish constables declined to comment.
