Good afternoon Resident

On Wednesday 16th October West Mercia Police organised a multi-agency road traffic operation in Newport. It was centred upon vehicles using the A41, A518 and those driving through the town centre.

The purpose of the operation was to ensure that commercial vehicles, taxis and those carrying food that use the road network were safe to be on the roads. The operation was organised by West Mercia Police’s Problem Solving Hub, with support from the Safer Neighbourhood Team, the Operational Policing Unit, Telford and Wrekin Council’s Public Protection Dept, Environmental Health Team, Neighbourhood Enforcement Officers and Licensing Dept and vehicle examiners from the Driver & Vehicle Standards Agency.

Four taxis were stopped, three of these were found to be compliant with the conditions of their licence and one vehicle had defects and was extremely dirty inside and out. These defects were rectified at the site and ongoing compliance will be checked in due course.

Several refrigerated food transport vehicles were also stopped and examined by Environmental Health Officers. All were found to be up to standard.

Neighbourhood Enforcement Officers had cause to deal with five vehicles that were brought into the site.

Driver & Vehicle Standards Agency vehicle examiners had cause to check several vehicles and have dealt with the following issues.

- One Driver did not have a valid CPC qualification, which was required for that type of vehicle when removing rubble from a customer’s driveway when used for hire and reward. Driver was prosecuted.

- One driver’s tachograph was not in use by the driver on arrival on site. Driver was prosecuted.

Six other vehicles were examined and immediately prohibited from moving due to faults including: no trailer brake lights, no trailer brake away cable, faulty indicator, faulty indicator, insecure load and ball joint imminent failure.

The police issued several tickets for a variety of road traffic offences. One vehicle was seized for no insurance and the driver was reported.  A foreign registered vehicle was stopped after the driver was seen to be using a mobile phone and not wearing a seatbelt. He received an on the spot fine as he was a non-UK resident.

The operation was considered to be a success. Along with those unsafe vehicles that we identified, we found that most vehicles were in fact being driven in line with regulations that cover their safe use. We were able to educate drivers and ensure faults were rectified prior to them continuing their journey. West Mercia Police are committed to making the roads safer and consideration will be given to conducting further operations such as this.