Over 100 people caught speeding in 20mph zones

More than 100 fines were given to people who were caught speeding in 20mph (32.2 km/h) zones across the Thames Valley last year.

Many new 20mph zones have been introduced in the region over recent years but existing roadside fixed cameras are not approved by the Home Office to enforce speeds below 30mph (48.3km/h).

Thames Valley Police said it issued 109 Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) to drivers caught exceeding 20mph limits after they were clocked on handheld speed devices in 2024.

The region's police and crime commissioner (PCC) Matthew Barber said he would expect FPNs to be issued if officers spot offending but that faster roads are statistically more dangerous.

Oxfordshire County Council approved an £8m plan to cut speed limits to 20mph on up to 85% of its 30mph roads in 2021, and others have been introduced in Berkshire.

"There has always been and there always will be enforcement for 20mph. When [councils] introduce them that does not suddenly mean we have loads of capacity for enforcement of 20mph," Mr Barber said.

"If you have roads policing or a neighbourhood officer who's got a calibrated speed gun and the limit is 20[mph] and someone is doing 30 then that can absolutely be enforced and I would expect it to be."

He told the Thames Valley's Police and Crime Panel on Friday: "That doesn't mean that police are suddenly going to pop up with speed guns and start enforcing it. That is not non-enforcement, that is the same level of enforcement [seen on other roads] because we don't have any resource to do the enforcement."

Mr Barber said the most dangerous roads tend to be the fastest ones.

He said in a 20-year period across the Thames Valley, 1,600 people died on roads where the speed limit was 40mph or more and 600 people died on roads which had a 30mph limit or lower.

"That is not to say we do nothing about the smaller stuff – of course local roads matter.

"But where can we save people's lives? It's where they're dying and that's generally not in these local communities where they're travelling at 20 and 30 [mph], thankfully," Mr Barber added.

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