Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Did you Hear about the Dramatic Increase in Speeding Fines this April?
Somehow this one passed me by. In case I'm not teh only one I thought I'd share.
Currently the minimum penalty you can expect to receive for speeding is a £100 fine and 3 penalty points added to your licence, but from April 24, 2017, magistrates in England and Wales have been directed to apply banded speeding fines for the most serious offenders.
Band A speeding fine
A Band A speeding fine would be appropriate if you are caught speeding between 31-40 in a 30mph zone, and you can expect to receive a fine equivalent to 50% of your weekly income (£240), and 3 penalty points on your driving licence.
By way of comparison, the average speeding fine handed out in 2015 was just £188.
Band B speeding fine
You might receive a Band B speeding fine for doing between 41-50mph, in which case you'd face a fine equivalent to 100% of your weekly income (£480), and 4 penalty points on your driving licence, or disqualification from driving for up to 28 days.
Band C speeding fine
A Band C speeding fine means that anyone speeding at 51mph or above in a 30mph limit - for example - faces a fine equivalent to 150% of their weekly income, and 6 penalty points on their driving licence, or disqualification from driving for up to 56 days. If you’re disqualified for 56 days or more you must apply for a new licence before you're able to start driving again.
For anyone earning £25,000 a year, a speeding fine equivalent to 150% of their weekly income means handing over a minimum of £720 - no small amount.
Summarised below:
If you get caught driving at a speed that will land you with a Band B or C speeding fine, the magistrates may believe your speeding is too serious for penalty points. In this case, you may be disqualified from driving for a period of time instead of being given penalty points.
Magistrates are instructed to take any mitigating or aggravating factors into account. A mitigating factor, like speeding because of an emergency, for example, and receiving a Band C fine, could see the speeding ticket reduced to 125% of the driver’s weekly income.
However, the presence of an aggravating factor could see a Band C speeding fine rise to as much as 175%. Aggravating factors include things like being a persistent offender or speeding while towing a trailer or a caravan.
All the fines can only be levied by the police, but in some areas residents are working with the local police force running a Community Speedwatch programmes, as they do in Haringey.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by EyeSpy on
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That's a great way to increase pollution.
Transmissions aren't optimised for 20 MPH, leaving higher revs than needed as the result.
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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It's ok, the internal combustion engine is on it's way out very soon.
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Won't be round here. Unless you fancy falling over cables and brown outs.
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Permalink Reply by Sarah on
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Though traffic moves more smoothly at a limit of 20, with less stop/start which would cause increased emissions.
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Depends if they have a job, or not. I guess a student loan is an income of sorts, too. Although given it's deducted off future earnings, perhaps they ought to get money back when fined?
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Permalink Reply by NickM on
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I wrote an explainer about what was changing due to the amount of confusion following some interesting media reporting. It can be found here
https://www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/blog/post/changes-to-fine-leve...
In short, only those speeding excessively will get bigger fines. The banded approach is nothing new and fines are already linked to income by law.
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