Speedwatch
Ashill has a Community Speedwatch Team and would really like you to help us by volunteering your services. Due to a few retirements, the team needs two or three more people so that we can continue to provide the service to the village.
If I’m interested, what’s expected of me?
Pretty simple, really. After completing a registration form, Norfolk Constabulary run a few checks on you and then you have to attend a session in the village with some existing members of the team – and that’s it. We’d like you to be available for an hour, around every 7-10 days, at a date and time that works for you. You’ll be in a team of three at one of a few locations in the village, noting registration numbers of speeding vehicles, measured with the supplied radar device. No other commitment is required.
So, what is Speedwatch?
SpeedWatch is a village service, officially supported by Norfolk Constabulary and run by volunteers from the village. At each session, we tend to note between 5 and 10 vehicles speeding in the 30mph zone of the village. The vehicles reported are generally travelling between 35 and 40mph, but we also regularly measure them in the 40s and even the 50s. All the data we note is passed to Norfolk Constabulary for further action (that depends on the speed). Sometimes, our local Police or the Traffic Officers also attend and with their own radar device.
Throughout Norfolk, there are just over 100 SpeedWatch Teams with just over 900 Volunteers.
Why do we have SpeedWatch?
You may have noticed that we have a speed device in the village (called a SAM2). It’s moved around various locations every few weeks, and stores data (times and speeds) from the traffic that passes, but isn’t a camera so it doesn’t get registration numbers. We download the data from that device and analyse it – to determine when and where the traffic is speeding for example.
Here is the most recent SAM2 Report, from April 2025 Annual Parish Meeting.
Click here to read.
A previous extract of the SAM2 Report from June 2 to June 30 2024 (28 days), the SAM2 was in the village centre and counted 43,363 vehicles in the 30mph zone. That’s just over 1540 vehicles a day. The maximum speed recorded was 60mph through the village centre. Around 10% of all vehicles exceeded 30mph. At the weekend, this rises to 12-14%. The peak traffic volumes are from 15:30 to 17:30. The counts by speed range are as follows … 30-35mph (4113), 35-40 (452), 40-45 (73), 45-50 (15), 50-55 (7), 55-60 (2). The data shows there is regular speeding through Ashill, but you probably already know that.
How can you help?
We’d like to continue to deter people from speeding through Ashill. If you’re one of the people who passes and stops to tell us they wondered why the traffic was slower at the moment, or that we should really be around first thing in the morning when cars and vans go speeding through the village … now is the time to step up. If you have some spare time, come and help us, please. We are a really friendly team and would like you to join us. Contact Graham on 07519 656381 or via email at mailto:ashillspeedwatch@gmail.com for details or to ask any questions
