TfL targets one million fines a year, top Met officer says
Transport for London (TfL) is set to target one million speeding fines a year, as more than 623,000 prosecutions have taken place between 2020 and 2021.
According to Simon Ovens, chief superintendent at the Met’s roads and transport policing command, TfL has “a clear position to get to a target of one million prosecutions a year for speeding.”
Speaking yesterday at a London Assembly transport committee, Ovens said an additional 564 Police Community Support Officers will monitor speeding limits between 6am and 10pm, the Evening Standard first reported.
London’s walking and cycling commissioner Will Norman intervened saying that TfL’s goal is not to prosecute but to make sure people drive within the limits.
“We need to do the enforcement, but we also need to talk about the enforcement so that it becomes [the norm]. Ultimately, I don’t want to enforce against anybody. I want people to drive at 20 miles an hour and be safe and protect people.”
The news comes a few days after TfL announced it will increase fines for road contraventions from £130 to £160 on London’s network of red routes, which make up 5 per cent of the capital’s road system but carry 30 per cent of its everyday traffic.
“Increasing the penalty charge for contraventions on our road network in line with inflation will provide a more effective deterrent to drivers and improve the safety and reliability of the network,” Siwan Hayward, TfL’s director of compliance, policing, operations and security, said.