New speed watch group catches up to 50 speeders an hour in Booth Lane

The group was set up by Middlewich PCSO Dave Jinks and residents from Warmingham Lane last month and has now grown to 11 members after receiving interest from other residents around the town who want to stop speeding in their roads.

Residents chipped in to raise funds to buy their own speed gun, and now operate on five roads around the town - Warmingham Lane, Booth Lane, Croxton Lane, King Street, and St Michael’s Way.

Jonathan Parry, Warmingham Lane resident who helped set up the group, said the interest from other Middlewich residents shows the extent of the problem.

Jonathan said: “We have 11 volunteers now which is absolutely fantastic and we’ve added extra points so we are now going to be standing on five roads around Middlewich.

“We’ve also bought our gun now with residents chipping in to pay for it and the PCSO has purchased high-vis vests for everyone out of his own pocket so it’s obvious that this is a scheme that is really appreciated and it highlights that there are speeding problems throughout Middlewich.

“I’m not doing this to catch loads of speeders, I couldn’t care less, I just want to stop people from going past my house at in excess of 50mph.”

Jonathan also said that after a month of the group being up and running, the pattern emerging of up to 50 cars per hour being caught speeding in Booth Lane is ‘way too much.’

Jonathan added: “On Booth Lane we can get up to 50 cars an hour speeding which is crazy but the problem with Booth Lane in my opinion is when people see the camera, they are slowing down to 40mph and going past us at 40mph. It highlights the fact that people still don’t know it’s a 30mph zone, they think it’s a 40mph zone. The amount we get in such a small amount of time is way too many.

“Even if they have massive signs saying 30mph you will still get speeders but there are a lot of speeders in Booth Lane that think it’s a 40mph and we need to find a way for that to be highlighted.”