Community feedback, winter weather, and festivities put road safety as a priority for Newark and Sherwood’s neighbourhood police

As driving conditions worsen and festive celebrations approach, police are set to crack down on motoring offences to help boost safety on the roads.

For the months up to December, road safety has been named as a priority policing area for Newark and Sherwood’s neighbourhood officers — who will work alongside colleagues from Nottinghamshire Police’s Roads Policing Unit and Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service to drive home the message.

It was selected off the back of community feedback received through the force’s Notts Alerts ‘What Matters’ survey, which highlighted issues such as speeding, nuisance vehicles, and off-road bikes as key concerns for residents.

You can sign up to Notts Alerts to take part in these surveys via: www.nottsalerts.co.uk.

Inspector Charlotte Ellam, District Commander for Newark and Sherwood, said: “All of these offences are things which contribute to road safety issues, and we chose to include this as a priority based on the strength of feeling from residents.

“The Roads Policing Unit will be coming this month for a joint operation with neighbourhood teams across the district, and to patrol the roads.

“We’ll also be delivering joint educational sessions with the unit and Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service, the teams will be deployed with the speed camera, and as always we will continue to support community speed watch groups — who have seen some great results.

“If communities don’t have a speed watch group, they can get in touch for advice on setting one up.”

The focus is also timely as Nottinghamshire Police gears up for its annual Christmas-time ‘Fatal Four’ campaign, which aims to highlight and educate on the dangers of speeding, drink and drug driving, not wearing a seatbelt, and using a mobile phone. These are the most common reasons for deaths and injuries on the road.

As winter sets in road safety becomes even more vital, with the changing weather and darker nights contributing to poorer lighting, deteriorating quality of road surfaces as potholes are exacerbated by rain and frost, and icy conditions.

Inspector Ellam added: “People really need to adjust their driving to the conditions — just because it’s a national speed limit road doesn’t mean that in the conditions it is safe to drive at the limit.

“In previous years we’ve also had issues with flooding which can have a real impact on safety.

“We’re also coming up to the Christmas period, with parties and meals, and there can be a temptation to drive to or from these events — or even the next day. The impact of drink-driving is in many cases fatal.”

With major arterial routes such as the A1 and A46 falling within the district, its road network does experience some serious collisions, the Inspector explained.

She said: “It’s important we do everything we can to ensure people are using our roads safely.”