Local residents attending Armley Forum have renewed calls for permanent speed cameras along a stretch of the A647 Stanningley Road labelled an ‘urban motorway’.
As previously reported by West Leeds Dispatch in April, concerns were expressed about the disruption speeding drivers were causing nearby householders as they sped down the A647 in Armley.
At tonight’s Armley Forum, fresh calls were made to reduce the speed limit from 40mph to 30mph on the stretch of road in Armley, with residents speaking about the ‘overwhelming noise’. There were also calls for permanent speed cameras on the road.
One of the residents, Cat Hyde called for the road to have the same 30mph speed limit as Kirkstall Road, which is also one of the main arteries taking traffic through West Leeds into the city centre. She added:
“Every evening when I go to bed I cringe and I cry a little when I hear the speed of the cars. I am literally crying every night. I think ‘my God’.
“Stanningley Road is such a major, major issue but we have not seen a police van recording speeds for such a very long time. How many fatalities do we have to have?”
Senior council highways officer Chris Way said that following his visit to Armley Forum last year, he had lobbied the West Yorkshire Casualty Prevention Partnership, which decides where permanent cameras should be placed.
The Partnership – which consists of the five councils of Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield along with the police and the Highways Agency – decided the road did not meet the strict criteria needed.
However three mobile speed camera sites were created on a stretch of Stanningley Road, with one near Cockshott Lane, one near Pasture Mount and one near the junction with Armley Grange Drive.
The meeting heard that the vans are operated by the West Yorkshire Casualty Prevention Partnership using police vans.
In the first 12 months of operation, it issued 3,007 speeding tickets – 850 of those in June alone. Mr Way added:
“I know it wasn’t what the forum asked for – and we will continue to lobby for permanent cameras – but we did get some measures in and we are using them. It is not a perfect solution, but it is part of our arsenal to try sort the problem.”
On reducing the speed limit to 30mph, Mr Way told Armley Forum that any moves would need to be enforceable by police and follow national guidelines. He said as work on the £20m A647 bus priority scheme progressed there could be opportunity to implement changes at the part of the road where one lane changed into two.
He agreed to meet local residents on site to discuss this.
Cllr Lou Cunningham (Lab, Armley) said she had asked for more speed surveys to be carried out on that stretch of Stanningley Road and said extra crossings as part of the A647 scheme may also help to slow traffic.
Meeting chair Cllr Jim McKenna added:
“Once you hit the 40mph zone people come onto what seems to be an ‘urban motorway’ as they head up towards Pudsey.”
Police attending the meeting sympathised with residents’ concerns and said the van had been stationed on Stanningley Road. He added that – along with similar issues on Bradford Road in Pudsey – police could not be there all the time “but we are there when we can be”.
WLD reported on calls for a reduced speed limit on the A647 in Armley back in 2018. Community speed watch days run by local residents and police were also held following a spate of fatal accidents on the road. WLD has repeatedly followed similar concerns about speeding and noise on the A647 in the Pudsey/Thornbury area, with calls for permanent speed cameras in the area leading to Dawsons Corner.
Armley Forum is run by Leeds City Council’s Inner West Community Committee.
Yet more cameras which will catch Mr and Mrs Bloggs slightly over the arbitrary limits but not the real problem of cars heading to and from Bradford which are often unlicenced/insured anyway. Read the Telegraph and Argus and you’ll find serious crashes almost daily rom the high powered German car brigade. Mostly the same demographic involved. Cameras just raise revenue. North York’s catching over 81,000 drivers a year, people aren’t robots, the proliferation of cameras on our roads have not made them safer.
I have seen the mobile speed camera vans from time to time, but it has been during the day. Yes they may catch the odd one who speeds, but I it does have to be at the night as well. From say 11pm to 1pm especially on a Friday and Saturday night. I live close to the A647 and you can tell that the loud engine noises of cars and some bikes are speeding to or from the Leeds direction. The roads are a little quieter, so they think they will be safe doing what seems like 60- 70 mph or more ( it is just my judgement, but i have been driving for over 40 years and have a good judgement of speed). Camera’s only deter speeders leading up to the camera and then speed up again.