Drivers were caught speeding on tens of thousands of occasions in Cumbria last year, according to new figures. Cumbria Constabulary recorded 35,039 speeding offences in 2019-20, according to analysis of Home Office figures by the RAC Foundation. This was still 13 per cent fewer than the 40,104 logged during the previous year, while across the 43 police forces in England and Wales the figure rose by 8 per cent. The number of people caught breaking the speed limit across the two nations hit 2.6 million in 2019-20. The group’s director Steve Gooding said: “Not for the first time there seems to be a patchwork approach to speed enforcement across England and Wales, with different constabularies dedicating varying levels of resource into catching those who break the limit.”
Work by Cumbria police to crackdown on speeding offences has been praised after figures reduced by 13 per cent against the previous year. Barrow councillor Bill McEwan said the constabulary deserved credit after it recorded 35,039 speeding offences in 2019-20, according to the RAC Foundation, down decrease compared to the 40,104 offences recorded during the previous year. Cllr McEwan, who is a Cumbria County Council representative for the county Casualty Reduction and Safer Highways Group (CRASH), said: “It’s absolutely fantastic news, this is what we want and I would love to see it drop even further. “I think it’s down to policing and the way they’ve made the signs available to get people to slow down and drivers are taking notice of this.