Kent forced to cut roadside checks
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by Karen Miles • The future of UK roadside enforcement by the police is being questioned as the UK's most stringent HGV enforcement constabulary axes more than 80% of the roadside checks in its county.
The move by Kent Police leaves lawbreaking operators facing only around two roadside checks a month in the county—the current average is more than a dozen.
The action is all the more serious because Kent is the main UK thoroughfare for international traffic.
The Association of Chief Police Officers says Home Office pressure could lead other police forces to follow suit.
The Vehicle Inspectorate which, alongside the other enforcement agencies, needs the police to flag down vehicles, is complaining strongly to the Department of Transport about the change.
The VI has also been asked by the DOT to produce statistics showing the impact of the reduction of police enforcement, especially in terms of the numbers of cancelled checks,
Despite the protests, Kent traffic chiefs last week launched their new roadside check programme. This offers police purely for multi-agency checks rather than the previous mix of single and multi-agency stops. It will mean that instead of the police accompanying around 150 single and multi-agency checks a year at the Boughton weighbridge on the A2/M2 alone, they will staff 24 checks throughout Kent involving the VI, Customs, the Health and Safety Executive and Trading Standards.
"It will mean there will be fewer checks but bigger ones," says Inspector Bob Bartlett of Kent traffic police. "This is not a course of action I take willingly but a course of action I have to take."
The change results from a review that has led to the redeployment of many traffic police into crime and disorder prevention work. That has been pushed on by Home Office pressure that has forced Kent, along with other police forces, to identify its "core functions" (CM14-20 July).
Complaints are not expected to stop the Kent cut, but in the long term the VI hopes for new legislation which would give both traffic and vehicle examiners the power to stop vehicles. David Wiltshire, former head of South Wales traffic police, said earlier this year that he was forced to reduce the number of checks in the region following a Ltim budget cut