Road Safety Operation - Sea Road

An update from PC Steven England regarding a recent road safety operation on Sea Road.

Dear residents of Westgate-on-Sea,

Yesterday I joined two Beat Officer colleagues from our Neighbourhood Policing Team conducting a road safety operation across various wards in Thanet. We recognised that road safety, excess speed, and nuisance vehicles had been raised as an issue in all three areas that we cover and deployed together for increased effectiveness.

In Margate we were able to seize an e-scooter within a minute of being deployed. This was seized under the Road Traffic Act 1988 as not having valid insurance and will not be returned to the owner. Testing on the roadside showed this capable of reaching 40km/h (24mph). A Traffic Offence Report was also issued in Margate to a motorist travelling at 41mph in a 30mph zone.

We then continued to Westgate-on-Sea and deployed on Sea Road. This has been consistently raised to me as a problematic road for excess speed, and we were able to scan a high number of vehicles travelling in both directions with our handheld speeding device. Encouragingly, we had no persons exceeding the speed limit, with all adhering to the 30mph speed limit during our deployment. Many residents commented positively on seeing us deployed.

We are planning to deploy again over the coming weeks and will target other roads that have been highlighted to us.

We are still in the early stages of recreating the Westgate Community Speed Watch, which has received positive interest so far. If this is something that you would be interested in joining as a volunteer then please let me know.

With kind regards

PC Steven England