Thursday 19 February saw the annual county-wide official gathering of representatives of Community Speedwatch groups in Warwickshire.
The event was chaired by Warwickshire Police and Crime Commissioner Philip Seccombe and held in County Hall Warwick.
The conference is held each year to give Warwickshire’s Speedwatch groups the opportunity to raise concerns, listen to new initiatives as well as hear of the on-going Road Safety efforts with relevant County organisations including Warwickshire Road Safety Unit, County Highways Department and Warwickshire Police. The event also provides an opportunity to interact with other Speedwatch groups to share best practice.
What are the numbers?
There are now 55 active Speedwatch groups in the County, up from 43 in 2024, with a total of more than 400 volunteers who give their spare time to work with local police to promote speed awareness and deter speeding, especially within our rural villages like Warton, by running sessions with a radar speed gun, following training by the police.
In 2025 some 759 Speedwatch sessions were run by groups across Warwickshire and this resulted in 6,263 warning letters being issued by Warwickshire Police.
Overall, this meant letters were issued to some 3.7% of vehicles monitored during the sessions which is roughly in line with statistics for Warton. Furthermore, “nil returns” (i.e. where no speeding vehicles are reported during a Speedwatch session) were up to 9% in 2025 from 7% in 2024 which was deemed a success in terms of CSW efforts.
One of the speakers at the conference was a specialist researcher in statistics with the Warwickshire Road Safety Unit and she gave an insight into the results of a recent survey asking the public their views on the work of Community Speedwatch groups. The survey results showed that more than 80% of responders were in support of CSW efforts. Just over a further 10% were neutral/don’t know responses which means that fewer than 10% of responders did not support the initiative. The survey also showed that just the presence of Speedwatch volunteers by the roadside caused most drivers, even those who did not receive warning letters, to think twice about speeding in future.
Volunteer, and lend a hand to keep our roads safe
All of the various speakers were fulsome in their gratitude to the volunteers for being part of the CSW network. If you would like to consider joining the Warton CSW group, please email wartoncommunityspeedwatch@gmail.com to get more information. Similarly you can email us if you would like to arrange to join one of our sessions as an observer (we will provide a Hi Vis jacket) to see what we do before you even volunteer. A minimum commitment is required which is to take part in just one session a month. All sessions are in daylight hours and within the village and some are run at weekends as well as weekdays so could likely fit in with work commitments.
Warton Community Speedwatch team members with police and crime commissioner Philip Secombe at the CSW event in County Hall in Warwick.