Pocklington Town Council’s road safety champion Cllr Pam Powell delivered the following report to the last meeting of the town councils ‘Transport, lighting and Road Safety’ sub committee.

The Community Speed Watch teams have now been operating since Nov 2022, although 1 team (Barmby Road/Yapham Road) was operational some time before that date. Most weeks there is at least 1 team in operation, sometimes more.
Key points to date:

• We have definitely noticed that we are reporting more drivers than we used to and at increasing speeds
• Traffic counts show that West Green has by far the greatest volume of traffic. Each session has recorded approx. 730 cars in 1 hour. Other roads have less than half of this amount.
• This does mean that traffic tends to be slower on West Green, although even here instances of speeding are recorded at each session.
• Across all sites, our record sheets show that instances of speeding are increasing, not decreasing.
• At each session we witness a clear change in driver behaviour when we, or our signage, are seen. It’s often very obvious when drivers have approached at speed and then need to brake to the speed limit.
• Almost exclusively, public comments to us are extremely positive, thanking us for trying to help, and complaining about speeding traffic in the town.
• Several CSW sessions have had to be cancelled at locations around the town because of road works. The Balk has been particularly badly affected by this.
• We have lost some CSW volunteers so we are quite thinly stretched at the moment. We really need some new volunteers. 2 people are waiting to be trained. We would like to post on social media and PTC website asking for volunteers.
• There are some strong recommendations for improvements to road signage etc in order to promote safer roads.
• To ensure that ALL speed restriction signs coming into the town are backed in bright yellow/orange to increase visibility. Some are and they show much more clearly.
• To look carefully at the possibility of adding a 40mph limit before the 30mph limit on all roads, but especially on Barmby Rd and Kilnwick Rd.