A20 Speed Cameras Sidcup

The A20 is a wide dual carriageway. If you want to look it up on Google, it’s on the A20 Sidcup bypass where the McDonald’s is. It’s always been a 70 limit for about 40 years. In October 2023 it was changed to 40 mph. In December they switched the average speed cameras on and suddenly everyone has been caught speeding.

To give you some idea of the scale, according to The Mirror, the most prolific speed camera in the UK last year was on the A40, catching 49,000 people. This one camera on the A20 in Sidcup has caught 62,000 in 5 weeks.

There was a rogue 50 mph limit sign amongst the 40 mph signs. The police say a member of the public put it there and they are now investigating perverting the course of justice. Personally I think that is the best argument, but it would really be a special reason rather than a defence. The prosecution apparently have already dealt with it by getting their own expert report to say that if you saw the 50 limit sign and sped up, it would not have made so much of a difference that you would have been recorded by the speed camera. But I think that is harsh because you could have glanced at the 50 sign and sped up and then missed the next 40 sign perhaps. So that potentially has legs.

Secondly, people are saying the signs are too small and obscured. I think they are too small and they are close to the trees, but I don’t think it’s enough to be able to persuade a court that they weren’t visible.

Thirdly, people have said that the sat nav still said 70 mph, which you know how to deal with. There is a well established legal principle that you should follow signage and not your sat nav.

Fourthly, people say that the limit should never have been lowered in the first place. It was lowered apparently because of safety concerns due to standing water. But the courts don’t have the jurisdiction to make a decision on that, all they can deal with is the speed limit in front of them.

So if people want to challenge it, I think in practice what’s going to happen is a load of people are going to go to court and have test trials. If those first test trials are found not guilty, I think the prosecution will start dropping them in droves. If the first few are found guilty, people are going to start changing their plea.