Children take to streets to appeal to speeding drivers

From the archive, first published Saturday 31st Mar 2007.

Schoolchildren took to the streets to warn drivers that they must curb their speed.Armed with cameras, eight Year Six youngsters from Wilsden Primary School joined Wilsden parish councillors and Police Community Support Of-ficers (PCSOs) in Main Street, Wilsden, to shame speeding motorists.The children filmed motorists driving in the 30 mph zone and gave them a 'thumbs up' or 'thumbs down' signal - depending on whether they were breaking the law along the route that many of the children take to school.Wilsden Primary School deputy headteacher Beverly George, said: "We like the children to be involved in things in the community. We have worked with the parish council before and Year Six pupils deigned the parish council's logo.

"We have a lot of traffic prob-lems and being involved in something that directly impacts on their safety, the children hoped they could really make a difference.

"Getting the children out on part of their route to school shows speeding drivers whose lives they are putting at risk."

Friday was the first time children have joined the Community Speed Watch campaign in Wilsden.

Wilsden Parish Councillor Caroline Tear, who joined the youngsters, said: "We have been doing speed watching for about 15 months now to make people in the community aware that there is a speed limit of 30mph and we would like people to stick to it. We thought getting the chil-dren involved would be a good idea."

Since Community Speed Watch was launched in Wilsden, drivers in Laneside, Haworth Road, Main Street and Harden Road, have been targeted.

"On one of the speed watches in Laneside, 80 drivers were over the speed limit in the space of two hours," said Mrs Tear. "That's a built-up area with a 30mph speed limit."

Offending drivers were photographed and a record made of their registration numbers and car so they can be traced.

Police will then send them warning letters.

"Speeding is a problem in the area," said Coun Tear. "I think it's an issue everywhere. We are trying to warn drivers to slow down before an accident or worse still, a fatality."It's a case of shaming speeding drivers. I hope that by seeing the children and who they could damage will help drivers to curb their speed."