With the Councils deeply flawed public consultation process on the proposed City wide 20 mph speed limit drawing to an end, a Chief Police officer’s statement has raised concerns that cameras may be deployed to enforce the new limits.

Hitherto the Police in York have said that they would expect any such limit to be “self enforcing” while the Council’s own web site talks of winning the “hearts and minds” of drivers..

The national statement reads;

“Reports from the All-Party Parliamentary Cycling Group have stated that police are not enforcing 20mph speed limits. The police policy is clarified below”

An ACPO spokeswoman said:

“In most cases, 20 mph limits will follow Department of Transport guidance and include features such as speed bumps or traffic islands designed to slow traffic. ACPO guidelines include thresholds for enforcement across all speed limits to underpin a consistent policing approach. However it is for local police forces to apply a proportionate approach to enforcement of 20mph limits based on risk to individuals, property and the seriousness of any breach. Where drivers are exceeding the speed limit through willful offending, we would expect that officers will enforce the limit and prosecute offenders.”

Locally the chief supporters of the new limit (Cllr Semlyen in Dringhouses and Cllr Williams in Westfield) have so far failed to make clear whether they support deploying speed cameras to enforce 20 mph limits (the Police have recently trebled the number of mobile cameras that they operate in the county)

At a meeting held on 29th January the “Cabinet” member with responsibility for transport (Cllr Merrett) told Councillors, in response to a question about the enforcement of 20 mph limits, “Regarding the enforcement of the 20mph speed limits in residential areas of York by the Police, the Cabinet Member responded that enforcement would be carried out selectively, where needed”.

The suspicion is growing that the enforcement of the unnecessary 20 mph limit will turn out to be another “cash cow” aimed at penalising hundreds of otherwise law abiding drivers in the City.

No doubt the Police and Crime Commissioner Julia Mulligan and the Acting Chief Constable will make the local police policy clear before the consultation period closes.