SPEED cameras in Swindon may have been switched off but volunteers across the county have helped catch motorists breaking the limit 15,000 times in a year.

Community Speed Watch has been running in the Wiltshire Council catchment area for two and a half years, and on February 22, Swindon Council will launch the initiative in Blunsdon.

Speed Watch volunteers pass on details of speeding drivers to the police, which resulted in 11,700 letters being sent out as well as 18 police cautions, six fixed penalty notices and three people being taken to court last year, the scheme coordinator has revealed.

Elizabeth Ngero, community speedwatch co-ordinator, said: “The figures show that people continue to speed regardless of the speed limits. In that sense people that go out and do checks are justified because motorists are going out and speeding.

“Community Speed Watch empowers the community. They know when the speeding happens in their area and can go out at the times when there is a problem.

“Some people slow down when they see them but there are still people who continue to speed and those people are the ones we contact by sending letters and enforcement if they continue.”

Volunteers are provided with special equipment and trained by police officers in the use of hand-held speed devices so they can record the speed of passing vehicles.

Cricklade, Royal Wootton Bassett and Broad Town are some of the 60 Community Speed Watch groups in action across the county.

And on February 22, Blunsdon will become the first to launch a group in the Swindon Council area.

They will be patrolling Broad Bush, Sams Lane, High Street, Ermin Street and Tadpole Lane.

Blunsdon Parish Council chairman Stuart Boyd said: “We had been lobbying Swindon Council for some time about the speed of vehicles through some roads in the parish. I think the biggest deterrent is going to be the sight of three people in fluorescent jackets pointing something at them.”

Swindon Council surveyed the speed of traffic on the specified roads using speed strips before they agreed that the volunteers could set up a Speedwatch team.

Lara Hill, of Swindon Council, who has been responsible for setting up the initiative, said: “Some people may feel their road is ideal for this, but very often people have a perception of speeding when in fact it isn’t actually a problem, which is why we have to put the speed strips down first.

“The area needs to be between specific junctions, or lampposts or house numbers, and also it is worth considering bends in the road.

“You’ve really got to think about where you are going to put the strips and in some areas there aren’t pavements so it wouldn’t be safe.”