Police crack down on road offences within King's Lynn area through action day
A police day of action has been held in King's Lynn today targeting criminal offences on the roads.
Officers were based at the Adrian Flux Arena on Saddlebow Road from 9am this morning.
Among the vehicles that were stopped by the police were a Bulgarian vehicle without insurance and a van towing a caravan and tractor.
The action day was organised by the Norfolk & Suffolk Roads and Armed Policing Team with help from local officers and motorcyclists from the Road Casualty Reduction Team.
Vehicles were stopped using Automatic Number Plate Technology which instantly checks a suspected vehicle using database records. This forms part of what the police have called Operation Moonshot.
Sergeant Peter Howlett said: "We do this several times throughout the year and have already done it in Great Yarmouth in January and Swaffham in May.
"It does reap the rewards for the whole fraternity and is quite a broad brushstroke. Some of the lorries are not displaying hazardous brake signs, others are foreign registrations which need to be registered in the UK, and there are scaffolding vehicles with general wear and tear, and defects from building sites.
"We have lots of staff here and we may take enforcement action as well".
Teams were positioned at the Hardwick, A47, A10 and the Pullover Roundabout looking out for offences during the day.
Jonathan Chapman, inspector for the Roads and Armed Policing Team, said: "We have a close-knit team in the area getting a lot of traffic through the strategic network.
"From a road safety perspective we have been stopping multi-faceted towing, no insurance and incorrect weights as these can cause collisions and should not go unnoticed.
"There are also lorry drivers who have been travelling many miles on a ferry and may be causing safety problems on the road, so we will support them as well".
A total of 670 people have been arrested in West Norfolk through Operation Moonshot since April 2016.
Road fatalities have gone down by 22 per cent in the last year according to Lorne Green, Norfolk Police and Crime Commissioner.
However, road collisions have gone up by five per cent in the county he said.
Mr Green attributed these statistics (which run up to March) to an increase in traffic on the roads.
"Norfolk used to be the best kept secret when I first came here in the 60s and now the whole-wide world is coming here," Mr Green added.
"There have already been three vehicles with Bulgarian number plates stopped today for instance.
"Every day is effectively an action day for police when dealing with the sheer volume of traffic, but we have got the road team to accommodate the growth.
"If you are going to cause trouble, don't bother coming to Norfolk".
