I was passing Lidl and I saw this aberration of an advertisement on a notice board outside. I do not know what emotion the photo director is trying to convey through this unfortunate model with the suspiciously crafted hairstyle.
Do you know anyone like this who would react to thought of getting something for nothing by such a facial expression? Is she closing her eyes and screaming in disbelief? I find the worst advertisements for excessive smiling are mobile phone ads. I know the advertisement is not directed at me but does anyone find this attractive if you are young, old or middle aged?
Anyway, my speeding story
So there was I driving with Francoise to do an interview with someone in Frome on Thursday the 27th of February passing through Buckland Dinham when I spotted, alas too late, two people in high vis jackets obviously photographing driving speed.
I admit that until now I haven’t taken too much notice of 20 mile an hour restrictions especially in rural surroundings where there is very little traffic as was the case. I received a letter on Wednesday the 5th of March saying time sensitive material which did not sound very good.
I also find that letters addressed to me with my full name are normally legal in nature so I opened it with some dread to be told that I had been recorded as having driven 32 miles an hour in a 20 mile zone. In relative terms of looks serious but in absolute terms I cannot see how this can have been regarded as dangerous driving especially as there was no traffic around and one car behind me.
If I had been doing 90 miles an hour in a 60 mile per hour would agree that that is reckless but 30 in a 20? Okay it’s a technical infringement but was anyone put at risk. I believe that thousands of motorists have been prosecuted for this especially in Wales. Anyway, I’m giving excuses already.
The letter tells me that the matter is “too serious to be dealt with by a speed awareness course and a fine” but it also spends about a page worth of a describing why speeding is about idea. It is a notice for speeding letter but it says nothing of a message of intent to prosecute. It’s my guess that this has not been decided yet, in other words the jury is still out, and I will have to await my fate in due course.
I’m also not sure how much authority the local people with high visits jackets have. I was done about seven years ago with an official police detector van parked in a lay-by and I had to do a course. That was about 2018.
Feedback from local social media
I mentioned my predicament to people on nextdoor.co.uk, A local neighborhood support group, in the hope that some learning or sharing could be experienced and sure enough people have come up with various comments which I list below.
I have indeed had the same type of letter, I was doing 35 in a 30 zone I was told that it’s now zero tolerance as far as speeding is concerned I got £180 fine & 3 points on license
The course is naughty school. Lots of us have been on one and then you don’t get points on license. That’s what they’re offering. My husband came home looking at all the speed signs for a while!!! Good luck. You ‘re not alone
There are public speed checks run by local people with speed guns. They will send you a letter to let you know you have been speeding. I guess yes as warning
It may be a warning letter if you were clocked by a neighbourhood speed watch. If so it’s just a warning. However, if the letter is titled Notice of Intended Prosecution then you’re in trouble.
Yes it’s somebody with a radar gun in a village. They are not police. I believe they have no power hence just a threatening letter. 30 in a 20 is quite a lot so be careful
20 mph is very slow & in some areas not much warning is given that the change in speed limit is imminent. Registering the change & slowing down in time can be difficult….also a lot of limits on roads have suddenly been lowered without any warning across BANES recently so one has to be extra vigilant these days!
A reply : Rubbish, if you don’t see a road sign it’s your fault and it’s called, driving without due care and attention,
I know most 20mph roads used to be 30mph, but you were going more than 50% over the speed limit so you got off pretty lightly if it was just a warning letter. Maybe don’t do it again?
You will soon know , for speed awareness you can. Only be going so much over the limit , if it’s more it will be a fine and points , one of my family members recently had a letter saying they were speeding , didn’t hear back for a while then recieved a fine and lots of points She got a fine of £600 and 6 points.
In Wales you are almost forced to do 25 -30 mph in a 20mile limit cos drivers traveling behind you get soo angry.!
Hi Brian, I’m not sure what your letter is, but you can read about fines and points at the GOV.UK website, which is the best place to go for accurate information. Here is the link: https://www.gov.uk/speeding-penalties#:~:text=You%20can%20be%20fined%20more,were%20driving%20on%20a%20motorway)., or “Google GOV.UK speeding penalties”.
Hi Brian. To try and give you some definitive info to help you decide what you have since replies above are conflicting:
1) ACPO guidance would generally tell police forces that 32mph+ in a 20mph would result in a fine (£100 and 3pts is standard for those who accept the offence rather than choose court and for whom don’t have significant previous motor convictions). You are therefore right on the border BUT each police force has the autonomy to decide whether to still issue a SAC (speed awareness course) regardless (you can only do 1 SAC in a 3 year rolling period)
2) check the top of the letter. If it doesn’t say “Notice of Intended Prosecution” then it 100% is a warning letter from a community speed partnership. You MUST receive a NIP letter within 14 days of the alleged offense date (unless dealt with at the roadside by a police officer where the conversation is the NIP) so if 14 days have passed since the alleged offense and you haven’t had a letter titled “NIP” then no further action could come
3) you’ll also know it’s a NIP as you would have to formally respond. They will ask you whether you accept being the driver or ask you to name who was the driver at the time. The NIP would ask you to log into a portal to respond so if the letter doesn’t ask for a response it’s just a warning
I’ve attached a NIP example for you to see
and then from the same person
ACPO (now NPCC – National Police Chief Council) haven’t changed their guidance and certainly haven’t issued a zero tolerance mandate. However, it is important to note that it is just that… it is guidance. Exceeding the speed limit is an “absolute” offense. That means it happens at that point so in your case as soon as you went above 20mph the offense is complete. The guidance says in general that prosecution won’t happen until a person exceeds the speed limit by more than 10% and that is just designed to remove the argument around things like how accurate is the speedometer, et cetera. It is completely up to individual police forces or even individual police officers to decide at what point they will issue the NIP. I think it’s partly why people dislike speed cameras as much because at least if you’re stopped by a police officer, you get the opportunity to engage in a conversation and you may even be given a little bit more leeway whereas cameras and speed check areas merely use predefined threshold
Parking in Sainsbury’s car park – I saw that the number plate recognition notice wasn’t working when I parked in Sainsbury’s car park the other day. Stayed slightly over the 1.5 hours allowed (2 hours) and got an £85 penalty charge in the post from Euro Car parks reduced to £50 if I pay in 28 days.
What I failed to notice at the time is the mobile van parked near the entrance
So just a message to everyone to be careful!
Not sure if this has happened to anyone else…
Just ignore it as it doesn’t ask for a fine or summon you to court. Members of the public have been given speed guns by the police and then are allowed to send out warning letters, but no action follows. However if they get enough speeders the official speed camera guys move in. So don’t exceed the speed limit by 10% + 2mph = 24mph in a 20 zone. That’s the formula given to me on a speed awareness course, so 35mph in 30 zone. To qualify for a course rather than points you would need to be going 5mph more so 32 would have put you outside that bracket…. moral keep to the limits
If it was an official letter it’ll have a photo of offending vehicle etc etc, just a local with probably a non calibrated speed gun and their sidekick writing the reg down, they either hand info to the proper authority because obviously DVLA gave out registered owners address.
Either you were caught by members of the public armed with police issued hand-held speed guns and it’s a warning letter, or you are being asked to confirm you were the driver committing the offence so they can issue you the fine and points. 32 in a 20 is too much for a speed awareness course I believe as they normally work on guidelines set out by the National Police Chief Council up to: 31 mph in a 20 mph area. 42 mph in a 30 mph
Breaking the land speed record again are we Brian dw I got one of these last year was by locals
I don’t like the term “zero tolerance”. People say it glibly but it’s not practical. When you make any measurements there is always a tolerance. There has to be, tyres wear and as they wear they give a slightly higher speed reading, tyre pressure also has an effect. You have to add to this the tolerance allowed in the instrument. Most instruments over read by at least 10% , if you think about it they must never under read or the car manufacturer could be held responsible for the speeding fine – so they always over read.
Consider too the aspect ratio of the tyre. Some cars have a choice of tyre and wheel sizes, Commonly a 50% aspect ration on a 16 inch wheel or a 45% on a 17 inch wheel. This makes only a 2% difference but this is added to the 5% that the instrument may have. Then we have the accuracy of the radar system, that will have been calibrated probably no better than a couple of percent. That will drift over time. Some of these tolerances will cancel each other out, but they may not, they may all add up! Suppose the prosecutor allows 10%, I defy anybody to keep within 10% when that means driving between 20 and 22, to do that you daren’t take your eyes off the instruments and I’d argue in a 20 limit your eyes should be very much looking out through the windows.
So zero tolerance is a silly thing to say, however I would point out that you can play it safe by aiming to drive at say 18 mph in a 20, that way you may avoid going over 22. Finally I’d like to say I’m sick of all this focus on catching people trying to keep down to the speed limits and getting fined for a few mph above a limit, when I frequently see people significantly above the limit in hazardous built up areas. The focus of the police etc. seems to be on the wrong people, that’s my perception
The term “zero tolerance” has absolutely nothing to do with this particular post though – 32mph in a 20mph restricted zone is a significant amount over the limit. Brian should be thankful that his offence wasn’t noticed by a police radar gun because he would be looking at a fine at the very least. As it is he has been warned of his speeding with no further action – that seems fair enough to me!
Yes, I think Brian is lucky, if it had been an “official” speed check he’d be in serious trouble because 32 in a 20 is a huge “over speed”. It just emphasizes the diligence we now have to have. In the past we got used to 30 being reasonable in around town and so 32 would probably have been excused. But now, suddenly we have a radical change of speed down to 66%. A huge reduction but also a “zero tolerance” approach. I don’t disagree with the speed limit but I do in many ways disagree with it’s implementation.
You don’t say why you were driving at 32mph in a 20mph zone. If you didn’t see the notice, you need to be considerably more alert, if you’re missing a sign you could miss a child who would be seriously injured at that speed. Speed restrictions as low at 20mph are in areas of heavy pedestrian traffic, often around primary schools, they are there for a purpose and should be treated with respect. We all get careless so you should be grateful to have received the cautionary letter, and see it as a wake up call.
You sum it up well in your diary: “I admit that until now I haven’t taken too much notice of 20 mile an hour restrictions”. Check out “12 months data from Welsh 20mph – what it means for the Local Authorities in the rest of the UK” on YouTube. An insurance industry speaker (from 49 minutes in) says collisions are down so much that the reduction in claims is “absolutely unprecedented” and premiums will come down. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BH34TjIzVDc
https://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/southwest/series7/speed-cameras.shtml Read: The Slip Effect, paragraph 6. Seems like a lot of hand held speeding ‘guns’ aren’t calibrated correctly, or are influenced by other artifacts.
Note from someone on social media on 24th March 2025
The “14-day rule” for speeding fines means the police must send a Notice of Intended Prosecution (NIP) to the registered keeper within 14 days of the alleged offense, but exceptions exist, and the fine is still valid if the notice arrives late due to certain circumstances.
So we are in day 25 so maybe I can start to breathe a sigh of relief.= Ed.
Note from Author
I’ve just been doing a session for my gardening customer Howard and I mentioned that I had had a letter. He admitted that he is a terrible speeder and has been on a number of awareness courses and he joke that he sees the same faces each and every time, and greets them when he comes in to the class.
Not quite ‘fancy seeing you here’ but something like that. He said that they’re now doing awareness courses online. Someone committed another offense just after he did he’s online course and he had to do it again so I wonder if they are doing away with in-person courses maybe because so many people falling foul of the law. Brian
premiums will
NEVER
come down
not ever
and … a lot of stuff on the speed awareness course is bunk
stopping distances especially
your mileage may vary 😉