It is only a matter of time before a Waid Academy pupil is hurt by a speeding driver, a former community cleaner at the school has warned.
Charlie Burton, who lives in nearby Cellardyke, says that drivers show complete disregard for the 20mph speed limit outside of the East Neuk secondary and says that more must be done to put the brakes on drivers that continue to disregard the rules of the road.
The 60-year-old said he would welcome the installation of community run speed cameras, as is being proposed for villages in the Glenrothes area.
Warning that the problem could be exacerbated when pupils move to the new Waid next summer, Mr Burton said that something needed to be done before a life was lost.
“I think speed cameras would be great, but why should we need to tell people to slow down when they should be slowing down anyway?
“It is only a matter of time before someone is hurt. Drivers ignore the 20mph limit in the rest of the town but it is outside of the school that is my main area of concern.”
Mr Burton estimates that he has seen drivers travelling in excess of 40mph while 20mph warning beacons have been flashing on roads around Waid Academy.
With the new Silverdykes housing estate nearing completion, he added that more needs to be done to force driver to stick to the limit.
“If there is no school crossing officer then they just keep on speeding,” he added.
Last week, The Courier revealed that Fife’s first fixed speed cameras could be installed within months.
Community run initiatives, possibly supported by the police, could be installed in Coaltown of Balgonie, Kinglassie and Leslie.
Funding is still to be sourced, however it is hoped that council funds could be found to lease the equipment short-term, with the cameras and software costing around £5000 per unit.
The system would operate 24 hours a day, with cameras capable of identifying registration plates, allowing it to identify repeat offenders.
Linked to a laptop in the possession of a local volunteer, the system would allow communities to call time on the “Speedwatch” initiative, which requires relatively large levels of participation and is often sporadic in its deployment.
The trial has been backed by councillor Bill Brown, Glenrothes area committee chair, who said: “If it is successful then it could rolled out across Fife.”
