Richard Parr A town council is to use more than £1,000 of public money to buy a radar speed gun to help tackle the problem of speeding motorists.Wells town councillors are to purchase the gun at the request of the police but only on condition that it is kept for use within the town and surrounding villages.

Richard Parr

A town council is to use more than £1,000 of public money to buy a radar speed gun to help tackle the problem of speeding motorists.

Wells town councillors are to purchase the gun at the request of the police but only on condition that it is kept for use within the town and surrounding villages.

The apparatus would be operated by Police Community Support Officers and would be in addition to any other radar gun used by community volunteers. This system has yet to get off the ground in Wells through lack of volunteers.

The gun would be used in areas where there are particular speeding problems but councillors are keen to ensure that it would also be used in the parishes surrounding the town.

Maggie Ward spoke out against having to buy the gun with the council's own money when police had only recently put considerable manpower and resources into policing covering the recent Tamil pilgrimage to Walsingham and Wells.

"The police coverage of the Tamil Day included considerable manpower and a helicopter yet they can't afford a radar speed gun for the town; I think this is ridiculous," she said.

Gary Anthony told fellow town councillors they should act on this issue now when there was a problem of speeding in the town.

"I think we should grasp this opportunity and look at what we can achieve, as opposed to thinking about the objections. We should be seen to be doing something about this speeding issue," he said.

Councillors agreed they would pay for the £1,200 gun and then ask the parishes it was to cover if they would be willing to contribute to the cost.