Dear Editor,

I refer to my letters of November 2024 and August 2025.

This letter is in response to two articles in the Chew Valley Gazette of October 2025:

Page 5, “Police crackdown on Chew Valley Speeding”; Page 7, Councillor Column by Dr David Harding “Meeting tackles dangerous driving”.

So, “nearly 900 drivers were caught for speeding in the Chew Valley” area during a three month period over the summer. What is evident and fails to be tackled by the Chief Constable Sarah Crew and Bath & North East Somerset Council is that ‘strangely’ all these ‘dangerous’ drivers were in cars/vans apart from one HGV.

Motorcyclists with no front number plate and car drivers exhibiting false, dirty or ghost number plates are escaping justice in favour of the easy pickings of car drivers who may be exceeding the 20mph limit by a few miles per hour but who are easily traced, prosecuted and added to the ‘offenders quota proving the police are doing their job!’

If as described by Cllr Dr David Harding states “the problems of dangerous driving, car meets, racing motorcycles and speeding in Chew Valley” appears to highlight a severe problem then why are there no prosecutions of motorcycle riders amongst the figures stated?

Is it that the simple reason motorcycles don’t have front number plates and are therefore immune to police enforcement staff as these riders approach the camera and are therefore not identified and or traced for prosecution? It appears to become too difficult to do! The FOI request I made to the police revealed all of the recorded offences were detected via mobile speed cameras operated by police staff (not police officers).

For the three-month period highlighted by the Gazette, I have received the following figures concerning the detection of speeding drivers:

Chew Magna – 231 car drivers, one HGV, zero motorcycles; (all within the 20mph area).

Chew Stoke – 467 car drivers, zero HGV, zero motorcycles; (343 within the 20mph area; 106 in the 40 and 18 in the 50mph areas).

Motorcycle accidents make up around 20 to 21 per cent of all road fatalities while being a tiny fraction of road users (around three to four per cent of vehicles) yet there are no motorcycle riders amongst the numbers detected for exceeding the speed limit when they are 40 to 45 times more likely to be killed than car drivers.

The police and council have identified motorcycles racing are a serious problem. If they genuinely wanted to impact on these irresponsible riders they would have taken action to enforce excess speed by these riders. It was stated at the public meeting held with the councillors and police that “additional patrols are planned at peak times”. Did that ever happen? I have not seen a police road motor patrol car in the area for months. My FOI identified that no offenders were reported by actual police officers so I presume this initiative is still ‘planned’.

The FOI also asked the question of the police how many of the offenders were not pursued after the event, due to the index number being obscured, poor reads, ghost or cloned index numbers or the keeper details were no longer correct. The police were unable to answer these questions without ‘exceeding the appropriate cost limit’ for research. I think this element is essential to know how comparable the figures are to those escaping justice.

Perhaps our local MP Dan Norris can have more success if he were to ask these same pertinent questions of the Chief Constable. I am sure these are of interest to the general public to ensure transparency and that it is not just those generally law-abiding citizens who have transgressed by a few miles per hour but are easily located as they are compliant in informing the DVLA of their ownership of their vehicle.

The former Surveillance Camera Commissioner Tony Porter is an advocate of eradicating the use of false/cloned/ghost number plates and is supporting Sarah Coombes the Labour MP for West Bromwich who has identified that up to one in 15 vehicles on our roads are cheating the system.

This disproportionate use of punishing car drivers for minor speed infringements does nothing to address road safety or the problems identified of dangerous and anti-social driving.

Of the 697 car drivers reported for exceeding the speed limit in the Chew Valley area, we need to know what steps are being taken to ensure motorcycle riders do not escape justice and that cloned/ghost/false plates are identified and pursued. Prosecuting the ‘easy pickings’ of the general law abiding public is unfair and ignores the offenders that cause most harm, danger and accidents.

Derek Maltby

Bishop Sutton