In just two years, the number of people sent on a speed awareness course climbed by 330%!
Since the number of 20mph zones on UK roads increased, the number of people being sent on a speed awareness course has climbed by a staggering 330%!
Police forces up and down the country have managed to rake in almost £57million as a result.
According to new figures, drivers attending courses after being caught for speeding in low-speed zones doubled last year to over 34,000.
The number of people opting for the 20mph course rather than a fine and three points on their licence has doubled year-on-year since 2014, this is when figures first started being collected by the National Driver Offender Retraining Scheme (NDORS).
Increase of 20mph zones results in £57m for police forces in 2017 © Copyright Malc McDonald and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
Instead of having to fork out £100 for a fine, offending speeders can attend one of nine motoring retraining courses such as the 20mph scheme – a record 1.4 million drivers attended one course or another in 2017.
Despite a national motorway speed awareness course only being introduced towards the end of 2017, thirty-thousand offending drivers have already attended the course.
Such figures have sparked concern that police forces are gaining financially from the increase of 20mph zones up and down the country, as a percentage of a course fee goes to the police, whereas money from speeding fines goes straight to the Treasury.
In September 2017, the police’s share rose by almost 30% as the price increased from £35 to £45 for each driver. This equated to them raking in £56.7million last year.
Back in 1991, the laws were made more flexible for local authorities and as a result, many decided to opt for 20mph zones in their area.
Just one year later and 250 such zones could be found throughout the UK and since, areas including Bristol, Hackney, Oxford and Warrington have introduced 20mph zones as a default limit on residential streets.
According to a spokesman for the National Police Chief’s Council, speed awareness schemes were created to ‘provide police forces with cost recovery only’, which included enforcing and administering course attendance, gathering evidence, handing out forms and fixed penalties, arranging courses, monitoring attendance and registering attendances which had been successful.
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