[ABD Logo]The Association of British Drivers
Local Issues — West Yorkshire
ABD Local co-ordinator: Email  

 

What must surely be Britain's best known farmhouse, Stott Hall Farm, for which the M62 splits and passes either side. It has become the source of many an urban myth: greens would have you believe that the farmer refused to budge and so they had to go round him, civil engineers would have you believe that they decided to go round the farmhouse to reduce the cost of building the road. What we should perhaps ask is not why the motorway was built like this, but why other motorways were not built the same way; for one thing is certain: cross-over accidents simply cannot happen here. The ABD has called for all new motorways to be built with separated carriageways where possible to improve safety. PR365
If you fancy a little stroll, there's even a walk which takes in the central reservation of the M62!


 
“Once we were the Flagship”
 
“When I joined the West Yorkshire Traffic Department more than 20 years ago, we were seen as the flagship of the force. We had state of the art vehicles and equipment. We had our own rank structure, up to ACC level. The rot started when Central Traffic was devolved to divisions. We were no longer specialists and the vehicles were downgraded, for financial reasons. Today, the highest ranking road traffic officer is an Inspector, of whom there are three. Road policing issues are ignored when call handling and response times are measured. Road deaths in England and Wales are the equal of a fully laden Jumbo falling out of the sky every month, yet we tolerate these deaths as if they were normal.”

Un-named police officer writing in
POLICE [pdf 463k]
(The newspaper of the Police Federation)
March 2004

2008-04-24
Police Investigating Leeds Council Over Dodgy Parking Enforcement
Police are investigating claims that Leeds City Council have knowingly enforced parking regulations illegally. The claim is that the council knew some parking road markings did not comply with the law, but continued to enforce them regardless. 2006-12-11
More Dodgy Speed Limit Signs
Calderdale Council have become the latest in a long line of bungling councils who can't follow simple instructions when it comes to putting up speed limit signs. The law specifies exactly what a speed limit sign must look like, and even provides pretty pictures in the official manual for those council officials who aren't good at reading. Yet they still got it wrong. Illegal speed limit signs have been installed around the area, rendering speed limits none-existent, and prosecutions impossible. Gravestone Poster Banned
West Yorkshire Safety Camera Partnership have been given a black mark by the Advertising Standards Authority for using a misleading poster. The poster showed 4 gravestones next to a speed camera, yet the ASA upheld a complaint that speed cameras could be installed without 4 deaths occuring. ×24
In just five years, the number of drivers in West Yorkshire prosecuted for speeding has increased a staggering 24-fold. 94,923 victims were mugged by speed cameras last year, raising a potential £5.6 million.
1999: 3,789 prosecutions. 111 fataltites.
2004: 94,923 prosections. 116 fatalities.
In the same period the quantity of properly trained police traffic officers fell by one sixth from 313 to just 252.

M621 50 limit to be extended
The ABD has learned that the Highways Agency plan to extend the 50 limit on the M621 in a southerly direction from junction 7 towards junction 8. This will add about 1 mile to the 50 section which is already of questionnable necessity. The extension covers a section of 3 lane motorway and is completely unjustified.
The public notice for the reduction has yet to be advertised, yet the arrogance of the powers that be is demonstrated by the fact that the 50mph signs have already been erected with the markings obscured by grey paint.
Speed Limit Reduction Notices
 
 
No Support For Speed Cameras
A survey carried out by the West Yorkshire Casualty Reduction Partnership has found virtually no support for speed cameras amongst the public.
Huddersfield Daily Examiner — No-confidence vote by drivers
Strangely, no mention is made of this on the partnership's website. Truth hurts.
 
 
West Yorkshire ‘Safety’ Camera Partnership Financial Results
Financial YearCash raised
2002/3£2,255,640
2003/4£3,625,920
Total£5,881,560

Sources:
1997..2002:
National Statistics — Road Casualties in Great Britain
2003/4 fatalities: WYSCP
The Speed Camera Con
 
The ‘West Yorkshire Casualty Reduction Partnership’ have published accident figures for 2003 & 2004. The figures for fatalities and injuries dropped in 2003, and they claimed all the credit. The fatality figure was only four less than it was in 1998.
 
The pratnership was launched in April 2002, after a very high fatality figure in 2001. The fatal accident figure for 2002 fell to a more normal level of 115. The rogues immediately claimed that their cameras were responsible for this reduction and therefore West Yorkshire needed more cameras. In 2004 fatalities went back to 116, and the pratnership boss said "You can't look at it on deaths alone."
 
This deception follows the pattern of many other speed camera pratnerships. They wait for a particularly bad year, launch the partnership and claim the credit for the subsequent 'reduction' in accidents.
 
See our Rigging the Evidence page for details of how this trick was used to launch the first six speed camera partnerships.
 
What WYCRP were careful not to say, was that serious injury accidents increased from 1187 in 2001 to 1204 in 2002. How can that happen if speed cameras are so wonderful at reducing accidents?
 
There are now 269 speed camera housings in West Yorkshire.
 
Huddersfield Daily Examiner — Road deaths up despite extra speed cameras
Police Thirsty For Prosecutions
Police persecution of drivers continues unabated with the news that a Wakefield driver was given a £60 fine and 3 points on his licence because his windscreen washer bottle was empty. Richard Jeffrey's car was parked outside his house when two clowns dressed in West Yorkshire Police uniforms knocked on his door and demanded his car keys. They then spent 30 minutes trying to find a fault with his car before resorting to prosecuting him for an empty windscreen washer bottle. Police claimed that they were carrying out a clampdown on unroadworthy vehicles. Pity nobody is carrying out a clapdown into unworthy policemen.
BBC — Driver's anger over fluid fine
Later reports said that Chief Supt Moorby (doubtless incredulous at the stupidity of his officers, and wishing to regain some credibility for the police) had decided to recommend the withdrawal of the charges, saying they were not appropriate. Let's hope he gives the two clowns a good ticking off.
 
 
Charges Dropped Against Ambulance Driver
Charges against West Yorkshire Ambulance Driver Mike Ferguson have been dropped. He was to have been prosecuted by Lincolnshire Police because he was caught by one of their infernal speed cameras whilst delivering a human liver for a operation in Cambridge.
The Crown Prosecution Service decided it was not in the public interest to pursue the case, though it took them 5 months to work that out.
 
 
Elsewhere on the ABD website:

External Links:

Media Links:
HDE: Huddersfield Daily Examiner


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