Keighley is to become the first of 4 areas in the UK selected for new state of the art cameras to make local streets quieter and clamp down on illegal drivers, the government has announced today. The news comes after Keighley’s MP Robbie Moore directly lobbied the transport minister for Keighley to be part of the initiative earlier this year.
The national trials, backed by £300,000, start with a camera in Keighley from today, and use new noise-detecting technology to clamp down on illegally modified vehicles. The new cameras use a number of microphones to accurately pinpoint excessively noisy vehicles as they pass by. This means that if drivers break the law by revving their engines unnecessarily or using illegal exhausts, they will be automatically detected.
Mr Moore, who has expressed his anger at motorists using Keighley’s streets “like a race track” and earlier this year met with the Department of Transport to lobby them for the initiative, has called the government’s announcement “huge news” for Keighley, saying he hopes “Keighley’s streets will be a race track no more”.
Speaking after the government’s announcement, Robbie Moore MP said:
"Today’s announcement is huge news for Keighley and a definitive step towards quieter streets across our town. For far too long, our streets have been used as a race track by drivers with illegally-modified cars – a complete and utter nuisance to our town - and so it is brilliant to hear that lobbying the government hard on this issue has paid off.
Keighley is one of just four areas across the whole of the United Kingdom selected for these trials by the government, and this promising new noise-detecting technology will go a long way in helping authorities catch these disruptors, providing the police with the tools and evidence they need to take action against drivers who flout noise laws.
Constituents have been quite rightly fed up with the disruption these drivers have been causing to our area, especially at night, and so I wholeheartedly welcome today’s announcement from the government. It is my hope that Keighley will be a race track no more.
