The Police Community Speedwatch has been launched in Woodingdean near Brighton as locals say it is only a matter of time until someone is killed due to cars using the well-know short cut.
A team of volunteers will be patrolling the local roads and using a state-of-the-art speed gun to note down the registrations of those breaking the law.
Local councillor Dee Simpson told us; “The problem is because traffic builds up people do use our roads right through the centre of the village as rat runs and we’ve got several long straights of road which do encourage people to speed unfortunately and so we’ve had lots and lots of complaints about how we can look at ways to calm the traffic down.’
She added; “More and more traffic is coming through, at the moment we haven’t had any fatalities, although we did have a young lad killed in Cowley Drive a couple of years ago, but eventually there will be.”
James Davidson from Sussex Police commented; “The residents not actually enforcing the speed limits, they’re recording the indexes and passing it onto us. We are then sending a letter of warning onto them, saying they’ve been clocked speeding by residents. If they continue that behaviour they’re then targeted for enforcement by the Police.
The team of around ten volunteers will monitor the traffic at various times of the day and warn that all areas in the town will be targeted.
Administrator for the scheme, David Hodgson said;; “It’s not only this road we’ll be doing, there’s a number of roads but this road is a particular problem with speeding, particularly when the Falmer Road has a traffic jam. People turn off at the Falmer Road and come down Bexhill Road at very high speeds.”