"We do not want to punish anyone; we would be really happy if no one needed us."

In a decade of being part of the local Community Speed Watch team Ashley Reay has, perhaps surprisingly, only been directly assaulted twice, with enraged motorists getting out of the car and remonstrating with the former Cadbury executive. Other than some finger pointing and the odd expletive, he has worked for hours as a Community Speed Watch member, and now co-ordinator, standing at the side of the road uninjured.

But as Ashley is keen to stress: "The motorists don't understand we are not out to persecute them, or make money for the police, we are there to help stop people being killed on the roads, plain and simple. If we didn't need to be out there checking speeds, we would be the happiest of people, our job would be done."

Instead the hi-vis wearing team are out, in all kinds of weather, checking speeds and then giving the data onto the police, who in turn can warn motorists directly to slow down, or face the consequences next time they do speed, or pass it across to highways to persuade them to put in better traffic controls.

Speeding in and around Frome is often raged about on social media. Most recently a teenage driver was clocked racing at 60 mph an hour along The Clink.

But the Community Speed Watch team want to stress that they are not somehow out to get motorists, they, pure and simple, want to stop people getting killed.

Volunteers are not paid, they are however trained and then they can help with as little as one hour a week monitoring speeds with a Speed Indication Device. A SID is what the volunteers point at drivers; and they are very used to getting a finger wave or two back.

"But that's not the point, we don't do it because we want to attack drivers or persecute them. We would be happy if we were so successful we weren't needed anymore."

Currently there is a dire shorage of volunteers across many areas in Mendip, including Frome and the need to record speeds is extra important, as stressful lives are often blamed for drivers going too fast. The number one culprit in the ranks of speeding motorists? Mums dropping their children at school.

CSW currently has around 150 volunteers around Mendip, from six groups in 2012 to 27 in 2017, but there are some pockets where they don't have any members at all.

[email protected]

Ashley said: " If we could get just six people to volunteer their time in Frome that would be fantastic."

The next Community Speed Watch AGM is on Thursday April 2 at the Salvation Army Hall, Old Magistrates Court, 21 Commercial Road, Shepton Mallet at 7pm.

Facts:

In Frome, 229 Community Speed Watch sessions were carried out in 2019 with 1,750 warning letters subsequently sent out to offending motorists.

Motorists first get a warning letter if they are registered doing 36 mph in a 30 limit, or 26 mph in a 20 mile an hour limit.

The most prolific area for speeding in Frome is Warminster Road, where they have recorded over 2,000 vehicles over the last 13 months exceeding the speed limit. One of the common complaints from drivers is that there are no signs to show the speed limit. But as the speedwatch team insists, the entrance to the A362 clearly shows the speed and it is also written on the road. When coming past ASDA there are lights which signify a 30mph speed limit.

In and around Frome in the year to December 2019, there were five fatalities in road traffic accidents associated with high speeds.

FACTS VERSUS FICTION

- The police make loads of money out of speeding fines

If a motorist choses to pay a speeding fine and accept the points, then ALL the money goes to the government. If they take a speed awareness course then the police get £35. That goes towards the maintenance costs of equipment

- Someone I know got a ticket for doing 33 mph in a 30mph limit

In Avon & Somerset the threshold before a speeding ticket and a fine is issued is at least ten per cent plus two, so that means a driver needs to be travelling at more than 35mph before they are recorded. The speed check equipment is pre set so it can't register a lower speed.

- My wife has been caught for doing 40 in a 30 mph. What can she expect as punishment?

She is likely to be offered a speed awareness course where she pays arounds £100 and gets no points. She can only complete one course every three years, so if she already has points in that period she will have 3 more, plus the fine.

- Those Community Speed Watch people are a waste of time, they have no powers and my brother threw his warning letter in the bin

It is true that he would not have got a fine or points from his CSW letter, but his vehicle would have been checked for tax, insurance and an MoT and the details will be on the police computer and passed to the Speed Enforcement Unit, who will be checking his speed when they are next in the area. CSW data is also shared with other police forces.

- I don't need to slow down, I know what I am doing, I am a good driver

The next time you see a road traffic police officer, ask him what it is like to have to go and knock on the door and tell the family that their young daughter has just been killed by a speeding vehicle. It could, and we of course hope not, be your child.