Campaign airs views of ‘silent majority’

The Essex Safety Camera Partnership is to launch a new publicity campaign featuring members of the communities it serves in early October.

The campaign sets out to reinforce the message that drivers and riders who travel at excessive or inappropriate speed in urban and residential areas are not popular with many people living in those areas.

The campaign comprises three bus posters and two radio commercials featuring images and quotes from people whose lives are adversely affected by speed.

In one of the commercials, a nine-year-old schoolboy named Craig says he feels ‘scared’ of speeding motorists. In another, a father (pictured with his daughter) says speeders ‘wreck lives’, and in the third commercial a school crossing patrol describes them as ‘selfish’.

"Many people feel intimidated by speed but all too often their views are drowned out by the vociferous minority and sections of the media that take and anti-enforcement position," says Kelly Fairweather, the Partnership’s communications officer. "With this campaign we have offered the silent majority the opportunity to have their say and hopefully to show drivers just how intimidating and unpopular driving too fast can be. As a result we hope they will slow down."

The campaign breaks on 6 October and will run across Essex, Southend and Thurrock into early November.