‘Excessive presence’ of speed vans questioned

LISSYCASEY councillor PJ Kelly is to request that speed camera operatives “justify their excess presence in Lissycasey”. The motion is on the agenda for Monday’s Kilrush Electoral Area council bimonthly meeting.

The speed van is located regularly in Lissycasey village, which is a 60km/h zone. While Councillor Kelly stresses he is not encouraging people to break the speed limit, he feels the cameras are located in Lissycasey too often and are regularly there in the early hours of the morning.
“One morning, a person was on their way to Shannon Doc at 3.50am and the speed van was in Lissycasey. On another occasion they parked among the vehicles that were parked at the church. It was downright deceptive. They are supposed to be in an exposed area where they can be seen. There was no high-visibility presence. They’re abusing their powers by their excess concentration on the area. I have no doubt in the world about it but it’s revenue oriented,” Councillor Kelly claimed.
“A local person got caught twice within four minutes. They got two summonses one morning and thought it was a duplicate but when they looked closer at them they saw that they were four minutes apart,” he added.
Councillor Kelly said while a speed limit is needed in Lissycasey, the speed camera operatives should explain why they spend so much time parked there.
“We would have no housing development if we hadn’t the speed limit but the operatives have to be responsible to somebody. Who are those private operators responsible to? If the gardaí are omnipresent, I can talk to the superintendent if I feel there’s a case of excess concentration. But who do I talk to about those? Who are they accountable to?” he queried.
“You can’t say you’re in favour of breaking the law but there’s excess concentration. There’s a lot of other things happening regards traffic, which have led to accidents but there’s nothing being done about it,” the Lissycasey councillor said.