DANGER roads identified by the public will be targeted by police as part of an operation which has been formed to reduce drivers’ speeds in Barnsley following a rise in complaints.
The Chronicle can reveal the project – dubbed Operation Slowdown – will be led by an officer from South Yorkshire Police’s roads policing group and involve each of the town’s six neighbourhood hubs.
Crime meetings held by the teams – based in Barnsley town centre, Cudworth, Goldthorpe, Kendray, Penistone and Royston – are now being used to gather locations of where speeding is said to be most prevalent.
Roads identified at last month’s meetings include Huddersfield Road, Darton; Pontefract Road, Cudworth; Sandy Bridge Lane, Shafton; Burton Road, Monk Bretton; Common Road, Brierley; Harborough Hill Road, Barnsley and Copster Lane, Oxspring.
However, although police are increasing their anti-speeding operations as part of the scheme and getting residents involved by training them up on how to use a speed gun, they have said prosecutions will be a last resort in the project’s infancy and only be pursued if a driver’s speed is far in excess of the limit.
A report said: “Each neighbourhood team now has a roads policing group officer as a single point of contact to enhance local problem-solving for local road safety priorities.
“Operation Slowdown is the force’s initiative to address local concerns of speeding vehicles at a neighbourhood level.
"The emphasis is on education, promoting road safety and changing attitudes to speeding for drivers as opposed to enforcement, where appropriate.”
A total of 608 collisions were recorded across the town last year – down by 15 per cent on the previous year – while Barnsley has averaged six road deaths per year over the last three years.
