Police to repay £18,000 in speeding fines

North Wales Police is to refund £18,000 worth of speeding fines after mistakenly enforcing a 30mph speed limit on a 40mph road.

The force has written to 300 people caught on the B4391 in Bala from March to July this year and is investigating a ‘very small number’ of other prosecutions during the last five years. A force spokesman said licence points would be revoked. He admitted that in some cases it would be too late to rectify the error as points can be removed from licences after four years anyway.

Superintendent Simon Shaw said in a written statement: ‘It was believed that the speed limit in force was 30mph following a revision by Gwynedd County Council in 1993 of the Traffic order which had previously designated that stretch of the B4391 as a 40mph limit… Following an enquiry by a member of the public, Gwynedd County Council carried out a review of the relevant road traffic order and discovered that the original road traffic order had not been revoked. Consequently, despite a system of street lighting properly reflecting a 30mph speed limit the section of the road was still in fact the subject of a 40mph speed restriction.’