Council plans to enforce moving traffic violations across Bedford are delayed

Bedford Borough Council’s plans to enforce moving traffic violations have been delayed while it waits for clarification on government legislation.

In June the council was granted the powers to enforce certain traffic offences, such as no right turns, U-turns, no-vehicle entry points, and stopping in yellow boxes at junctions.

The Environment and Sustainable Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee heard yesterday (Thursday, November 17) that there are still a number of outstanding technical queries with the Department for Transport (DfT) over the council’s ability to enforce some of the violations.

Matthew D’Archambaud, chief officer for transport, highways and engineering services, said: “We don’t want to invest frankly hundreds of thousands of pounds in this camera equipment if the enforcement or the legislation isn’t a hundred per cent there,” he said.

“Speaking to other authorities and benchmarking ourselves to some of our peers we all find ourselves in a similar boat.

“We’re all very keen to press on with the implementation of this equipment, but there’s still an awful lot of bits and pieces to be discussed, and bits and pieces to be agreed with the DfT at the moment,” he added.

The council plans to capture the majority of the moving traffic violations via camera enforcement rather than enforcement by officers on the street.

However, obtaining the right equipment is another challenge for the council, Mr D’Archambaud told the committee, as there is a current shortage of the cameras in the marketplace.

“We’re just trying to understand if, as and when we’re ready to come forward with implementation of this equipment, can we make sure that we can go out and have a really strong robust approach to this.

“Can we enforce against some of these moving infractions, and can we physically get the equipment out onto the network, ” he said.

Committee chair, councillor Kay Burley (Labour, Kempston Central & East) said the delays the council faced were “disappointing”.

“It was heralded as being the answer to quite a lot of problems in the borough, and now we’re waiting to move on,” she said.