Day of action in Kettering targets issues that matter to residents

A day of action took place in Kettering at the end of last month led by the town’s Neighbourhood Policing Team. 

Following engagement events and an online survey, one of the main topics identified as something people in Kettering would to see their local policing team focus more on, was road safety.

Therefore, the day of action focused heavily on this subject with the speed gun used in hotspot areas, ANPR used to target road crime and people driving without the correct documents, as well as officers patrolling the Carina Road area, where issues have been raised around “boy-racer” behaviour.

In Polwell Lane, 100 vehicles were checked with 19 fixed penalty notices issued for speeding, along with another seven letters of warning sent.

In Deeble Road, 120 vehicles were checked with four speeding tickets issued.

Checks were also carried out in Cleveland Avenue and Rockingham Road however thankfully, no vehicles were found to be speeding or breaking the law.

Also as part of the day, Newlands Street was targeted for cars cutting through with five fixed penalty notices issued, and local schools were also visited in response to concerns around parking at drop-off and pick-up times.

In total across the day, seven vehicles were seized, one person was stopped for driving whilst disqualified and 30 fixed penalty notices were issued.

A number of E-Scooters were also stopped and spoken to and pupils from Year 6 at the local Grange School were also taken out to Stamford Road to help out with the speed gun work.

PC Mick Leonard from the Neighbourhood Policing Team, said: “As Kettering’s Neighbourhood Policing team, it’s really important for us to be plugged into the issues affecting our local residents day to day, and to really listen to their concerns.

“That’s why we have LIPs (locally identified priorities) in which we ask our residents to fill in an online survey as well as attend our engagement events, every three months, to identify the issues affecting them.

"These are then acted on for three months before we go out to the community again for their feedback.

“The results of the last one clearly showed a desire for us to focus on dangerous and reckless driving in specific areas, so this is exactly what we have been doing.

“And it’s not just one day of action – many more are planned and I hope this reassures the local community that we are taking their concerns seriously and acting on them.

“It was also great to get some young people out from Grange School to help officers with the speed gun. It’s important for us to be approachable to young people as they are the adults of tomorrow.”