Charles Pedrick has lived and worked in and around Rodborough in Gloucestershire for nearly 40 years, employing up to 23 local people.
He is passionate about road and child safety. When his eldest son was five years old, Charles was extremely concerned about the state of the coach transporting him and fellow pupils, and after a serious incident he set out to change the law in the UK.
He fought and eventually succeeded in being part of an organisation that ensured that well maintained coaches, with safety belts, would be used in the future. This process entailed a protracted battle with various Government officials but culminated in getting the law changed not just in the UK but eventually in the EU states as well.
His aim as a parish councillor is to ‘make a difference to the parishioners on my patch’.
Presentation: Reducing Speed, Increasing Safety
Rodborough’s Road Safety Working Group (RSWG), chaired by Charles, is dedicated to identifying solutions to the problem of speeding in and around the parish.
Having originally set up a ‘Speed Watch’ group, it quickly became apparent that any real solution needed superior technology, which the RSWG didn’t have.
Working in partnership with an APNR camera manufacturer, the RSWG has developed an ANPR based radar system that uses a cloud- based software solution to provide bespoke data.
This powerful system can produce a report from the database and show, in descending speed order, the registration numbers that are exceeding the legal speed limit, between any two dates. The registration number of a speeding driver can be entered into the database to see if there are other instances of that vehicle speeding in the local community, and a report can be produced for the police.
Since the system came into operation in late February 2016, in excess of 150,000 motorists have been identified as breaking the speed limit, with the police sending letters to the worst offenders.
Following the trials in Rodborough, the system is now available for use by other parishes, villages and towns across the UK.