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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.

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It's nice to hear some enforcement is going on!

That's a great way to increase pollution.

Transmissions aren't optimised for 20 MPH, leaving higher revs than needed as the result.

It's ok, the internal combustion engine is on it's way out very soon.

Won't be round here. Unless you fancy falling over cables and brown outs.

Though traffic moves more smoothly at a limit of 20, with less stop/start which would cause increased emissions.
http://www.20splentyforus.org.uk/pollution.htm

The gearbox ratio thing is rubbish.

Does a 19-year old student have an income ?

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?

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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