A Highland councillor believes motorists are getting away with breaking the speed limit in Lochaber because the new trunk road patrol group is not fully operational.
Councillor Ben Thompson, Caol and Mallaig, made his comments following a presentation of road safety statistics by Chief Inspector Colin Gough at the council’s Lochaber area committee meeting today.
The chief inspector, who is the Highland South Area Commander, told members that 824 people had been detected for speeding in South Area Command between April 1 and July 31 this year – 90 of these were in Lochaber.
Other statistics reported for the same period included 33 people detected for drink driving of which 12 were in Lochaber, 54 for seatbelt offences of which 15 were in Lochaber and 54 for mobile phone offences of which 18 were in Lochaber.
The chief inspector also explained that, once it is fully staffed, the new road policing unit based at Fort William would comprise a sergeant plus nine other officers.
It is currently short of five officers, but he said they would rather take their time over recruitment and get the right people for the job rather than trying to fill the vacancies quickly.
Mr Thompson said he believed the low number of speeding motorists being caught in Lochaber was due to the fact the unit was not yet fully operational.
He said: “The percentage of speeding offences in Lochaber is very low compared to other offences.
“I’m sure part of the issue is staffing because the patrol group is not up to full strength.
“These figures show the impact of not having full strength policing.”
The new national trunk road patrol group in Fort William is one of 11 across Scotland.
Its duties include routine patrolling, attending incidents, investigating collisions and providing specialist officers to assist in the investigation of fatal road accidents.