Buckinghamshire Council have informed us that three locations in the county have been chosen for a camera trial to assess the level of traffic violations, and highly relevant to us – one of the locations is Marlow Bridge!
The council noted that multiple complaints from residents and road users have been received over a period of time, and temporary cameras will be in place from Wednesday 3 November.
Marlow Bridge is a historic, listed structure with a three tonne (max gross weight) restriction. Despite clear signage and width restriction measures in place, drivers continue to attempt to cross the bridge, damaging its integral structure. Many vehicles get stuck, so causing the need for repetitive and costly repairs.
Legislation is currently being passed through Government to allow all local authorities in England and Wales to apply for powers to take over the responsibility of enforcing moving traffic offences. These include no stopping in yellow box junctions, no right/left turn for vehicular traffic, no U-turns for vehicular traffic, as well as weight restrictions and many more. Currently such violations are dealt with by the police apart from in London and Cardiff. In the near future, possibly as early as March 2022, all councils will be able to apply to adopt these powers to take on the responsibility of upholding restrictions and issuing fixed penalty notices to those caught contravening the restriction.
Steve Broadbent, Cabinet Member for Transport said: “We are looking to install these temporary cameras to give us a better idea of the number of vehicles currently breaking the rules and causing a danger to others and damage to our roads and highways infrastructure.
“We want to make our roads and towns as safe as possible for everyone who uses them. This exercise will help us to better understand the way motorists are using these areas so that we can address particular issues and introduce measures to help improve safety and accessibility for all.”
The trial will be for a period of one month.
