LAUNCESTON Community Speed Watch are on the lookout for new volunteers.

The speed watch group is hoping new volunteers will step forward to offer some time to monitor the speed of vehicles through certain areas of Launceston and its surrounding villages.

The team were in Pipers Pool on Thursday, February 6, where they monitored between 250 to 300 vehicles and caught 18 speeding motorists going above the 30mph speed limit.

David Perry from the Launceston Community Speed Watch team said: “It went very well. We went up to Pipers Pool which has a terrible problem with traffic speed.

“We have been in existence for around two and a half years and we have three main feats — Pipers Pool, Daws House and Langore. We’re continuing the legacy of what the police have been doing before. We have worked with the police to include Western Road, Tavistock Road, Treburley and Dutson Road.”

The main aim of the group is to reduce the number of risks on the roads to pedestrians and local residents. David continued: “Dutson, for example, has had several accidents there. Western Road is a problem because of the general speeding — I live on Western Road and it’s incredibly dangerous.

“I have been in connection with local Cornwall Councillor Jade Farrington and after querying the matter Cornwall Council said there is not a problem on that road and we are not eligible for a pedestrian crossing there, which won’t do.”

Community Speed Watch initiatives are put in place to support the work being done by local police to ensure traffic and road speed limits are enforced. Speed Watch groups can often be found at a roadside, in high-vis jackets, holding up a speed gun as traffic drives past.

David said: “After we have monitored an area, we write everything down and we transfer a file into a database to the police. Repeat offenders will most likely receive a knock on the door (by the police).

“There’s five of us at the moment, and we would like to have three speed watches a week, but we just don’t have the volunteers to do it. As we expand to all these new locations, we would like to be able to have more volunteers. Having extra people would be a great help.

“It can be fun — we’re a friendly bunch. There’s no hierarchy — Graham (Curzon) and I are the ones who have done it most, but we welcome new people with fresh ideas. It’s quite good fun and this morning we were rewarded by having various people giving us the thumbs up from their vehicles — only occasionally do we have that one person wave us the one-finger salute!”

Any abuse that the volunteers experience is reported to the police, who deal with the matter afterwards.

David added: “It’s nice meeting up, it’s sociable. I can’t pretend that it’s going to be dry every day, but this morning we went out and it was glorious.

“We’re open to everybody — we’re happy to have a gender balance and it would be nice to have some younger people who don’t work all the time to get involved too.”

To find out more about the Launceston Community Speed Watch initiative and how you can get involved, email David on [email protected], Graham Curzon on [email protected] or Elaine Hartley on [email protected]