New Average Speed Cameras For A32 To Combat Excessive Noise And Speed
New average speed cameras are to be installed in the A32 and A272 in the Meon Valley to combat excessive noise and speed.
Police and Crime Commissioner Donna Jones has agreed an investment of £677,000 for Hampshire Constabulary to buy average speed cameras for the A32 and A272 within the Meon Valley, two of the most problematic roads for excessive vehicle noise and speeding in Hampshire.
Since being elected last May, the Police and Crime Commissioner has received consistent complaints about noise and speeding on these two roads from local rural communities and made a commitment to make improvements.
Analysis by Hampshire Constabulary has shown that new technology is needed to tackle speeding, noise and other road offences. This includes average speed cameras to reduce speed and noise, and new cameras that stop motorists speeding through changing traffic lights and breaking speed limits as they pass through the lights.
There have been problems with excessive vehicle noise and speeding in the Meon Valley for a number of years. Hampshire Constabulary has invested significant time and resources into speeding enforcement on the A32 and A272 because they are high casualty roads, but due to limited technology capturing offending motorists and motorcyclists was difficult.
Investing in new average speed technology will make identification easier and will capture offending motorcycles or any vehicle that is not displaying a front number plate. The cameras will provide a 24/7 permanent digital enforcement solution to tackle the noise and speed.
Hampshire Constabulary will continue to support the use of the cameras with marked and unmarked patrols, mobile speed camera vans and enforcement operations where other offences are picked up, such as illegal exhausts. The work will now be subject to a procurement process, with the aim of it being completed by the end of 2022.
Police and Crime Commissioner Donna Jones said: “Since being elected I have received consistent complaints from residents in the surrounding areas of the A32 and A272 in Meon Valley about the excessive motorbike noise and speeding, which is having a detrimental impact on their lives. I have listened to those concerns and the funding of these new cameras is a big step forward in delivering on my commitment to those residents to reduce the excessive noise and speeding.
“This investment is a result of significant analysis and work by Hampshire Constabulary and follows close working with local MPs, councillors and parish councillors who have all expressed their concerns on behalf of local residents and communities.
“The new camera technology will enable Hampshire Constabulary to make best use of the most up to date equipment available, keep roads safer and bring the most prolific offenders to justice.
“The installation of the cameras will not only address the persistent noise and speeding on the A32 and A272, but also provide reassurance for the public across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight that these type of offences will be tackled and taken seriously.”
Chief Superintendent Darren O’Callaghan said: “The A32 and A272 are high casualty routes within Hampshire and they are policed by the Roads Policing Unit as a priority.
“We are supportive of this measure as a way of discouraging any illegal use of these routes, to lessen the impact on local communities and to improve safety.
“We are also conscious that speed cameras alone will not solve the dangerous and anti-social use of the roads. This is why we will continue to conduct marked and unmarked patrols, use mobile speed cameras and conduct enforcement operations targeting illegal and nonconforming exhaust systems and the Fatal 4 contributors to incidents on our roads.”
Flick Drummond MP for Meon Valley said: “I am really pleased the Police and Crime Commissioner has proposed this measure. By doing so she has demonstrated she is listening to my concerns and the concerns of local people across Meon Valley whose lives are blighted by speeding motorbikes.
“Average speed cameras on the A32 and A272 will be a very effective and welcome weapon in the armoury of the police.
“These are roads where speeding has been a dangerous problem for many years along with anti-social motorbike noise that causes so much anguish. The installation of the cameras recognises these two problems – that often go hand in hand – need to be addressed. I would like to thank Donna for her work and action on this issue.”
Damian Hinds MP for East Hampshire added: “Concerns about excessive vehicle noise on these rural routes and the impact this has on local residents, has been a growing issue. Often the result of speeding, excessive road noise not only blights the lives of local people, but threatens an area known and valued for its beauty and tranquillity.
“Along with neighbouring MP Flick Drummond and local councillors I have continued to engage with both Hampshire Police and the Hampshire Highways team. I want to thank them and Police and Crime Commissioner Donna Jones for securing the installation of average speed cameras on these routes.
“This is a significant investment, and I look forward to seeing the work completed.”
Comments
Wow ….. nearly a £1m pounds of public money for this?! Sounds like a great investment!!!
Won’t solve a thing: usual political posturing. Engage and work with the groups might be a sensible alternative. Enforcement is not the answer, the cost to success ratio is a shocking waste of hard needed public money.
As a resident of West Meon who also has a motorcycle it’s a real concern that average speed camera’s with this scale of initial investment and ongoing run costs will not solve the issue of the “Isle of Meon” weekend and Wednesday pm TT, what we need is regular unmarked patrols to address excessive speed, illegal number plates and open exhausts, the location of any average speed camera’s will be widely publicised and consequently will simply move the problem vs solve it
I ride a bike through the affected area as my commute. I find summer evenings an embarrassment, but as you say, the real issue is antisocial behaviour and that means roads police patrols. I read elsewhere that 50% of the existing speed camera network is out of commission due to lack of funds, but cameras were favoured to counter police cuts. Perhaps there’s an imbalance here…
Pointless! Have a good speed – then stop for a coffee at loomies! Moves the issue to a different location and will instead catch more locals accidentally over the speed limit!
As a regular driver/rider it’s not the bikers that’s the problem, it’s the school runny dummy mummy types belting along running late to drop off/pick up at school everyday, that and the M27/A27 avoiding truckers speeding through the villages. Spend a few hours as I did in the lay-by on the drop into New Cheriton one Wednesday, speeding bikers NONE, lunatic locals I lost count, the worst being a Chelsea tractor driver with a Rice horse box, no lights (after dark) on the trailer doing an estimated 50 mph in the 30 limit!
Not very scientific John – live near the road full time and then we’ll see what you think of speeding cars and bikes.
Haha the state of you lad sort yourself out and stay indoors. *illegal numberplates* that’s such a burden on your life that other people don’t use a baking tray as a numberplate and want a slightly smaller one
We,ll simply go elsewhere..bye bye loomies. Sorry guys.
irresponsible and totally thoughtless.
No wonder so many bike accidents but guess the florists won’t complain.
I ride a motorcycle and I diligently stick to the speed limits through “the Meons”. 9 out of 10 journeys will involve some local in their SUV sat up my chuff in the 30 limits, undoubtedly a resident as they turn off into a property or stop at the local store. So, to stick it to them and the other Nimby Tory Poshos who support the “CANS” group and have managed to get precious funding diverted away from real policing issues toward their pointless vote-winning pet peeve, I will be sure to continue sticking to the speed limits but in a a lower, noisier, more responsive gear.
Ps. Don’t mind the cameras themselves, perhaps we can get rid of useless Tory spongers like Donna Jones to pay for them?
Your a real wet wipe if you get upset by a bit of noise. Hampshire is full of retired people who have nothing better to do than try to ruin peoples fun in order to have a cup of tea in the garden with no noise. ♂️
Most of whom are retirement incomers who’ve displaced local people and their off-spring.
Your a real wet wipe if you get upset by a bit of noise. Hampshire is full of retired people who have nothing better to do than try to ruin peoples fun in order to have a cup of tea in the garden with no noise. ♂️
Brilliant news, everyone has the right to enjoy their property without excessive noise . Why don t those that enjoy noise make it in their own back yard & see what their neighbours reaction is
I love doing it and the neighbours don’t care at all they are actually interested in what I’m up to when I make loads of noise
Sorry but if you move in right next to a main road then what on earth do you expect? Peace and tranquility…? You don’t go to the shops and tell everyone to be quiet because you don’t like it loud and you’ve gone there so it has to be your way… bunch of wet wipes the lot of ya.
Pointless invest that money on real crime no wonder why bikers hate cops and all supporters you think bikers cause all the troubles go help to feed poor peoples with that money absolutely useless no sense…
Come to Wiltshire my friends plenty roads to enjoy while not scaring all the Karen’s to deaf out there in the Hampshires.
No surprise that certain bikers have commented on here thinking it is a waste of money. Money that has had to be spent precisely because the biking community has totally failed to understand the issue of speeding and noisy pipes and the ridiculous notion that loud pipes save lives. Thanks for ruining it for the rest of us noisy speed merchants.
Residents note 60 limits will be reduced to 50 for the cameras to work.
Perhaps the public would be safer if this money was spent on addressing the rampant vehicle theft and county lines drug issues that we face in Hampshire.
What a waste of money based on the views of people who do not like the sound of motorbikes. Again we find public money being wasted on a minority opinion when there is more dangerous situations like the speeding of traffic (mostly cars) into the villages of Bishops Waltham, Wickham which is never addressed.
Well done to the snowflake MPs and Councillors who constantly waste public money and ignore the majority opinions.
I dont usually bother with the 272 or the 32 its mostly very substandard road surface anyway due to lack of funding from the government to the authorities or authority that has the task to keep them in a good state of repair, not only that it seems the locals dont have to obey the local speed limits and road markings as they overtake on double white lines then turn off into a local residence, which I have witnessed on more then a few times a week when I used to use the road on a regular basis for work purposes.
I will however look at the positioning of these revenue generators and their short comings. Where does the revenue generated go, to the local councils to benefit the communities or to the government coffers to pay for illegals to stay in hotels and party’s in number 10.
There are many speeding/loud cars, vans, trucks, Busses, loud slow farm traffic oh the odd motorcycle or two.
Who is going to have to pay for the upkeep and running costs the local councils or Hampshire police.
I used to like going through the different villages stopping at the local shops have a pub lunch.
Just wait to hear the local shops and businesses start to complain custom has dropped off or the odd shop closes down and turned into flats or pub shut down and you guessed it turned into flats as passing trade drops off.
Have a great life the moaning residents who have chosen to live on these main routes, especially those that have moved there knowing a busy road is there then complain, well done as you whizz off up the road in your car mpv getting captured for speeding by the very things you wanted to have installed.
People only mention the Bikers. We live on the main road and are oblivious to traffic noise now, but are not oblivious to the speeding trucks and cars who have hit and killed horses, pedestrians and bikers.
4 Biker deaths as a result of car drivers racing, bikers innocent is all four cases.
Cameras will not solve this, they will just blight the visual environment