TRAFFIC police armed with speed guns will enforce 20mph limits in Edinburgh for the first time.
Officers will wait at accident blackspots in a bid to catch motorists speeding through residential areas.
About 2000 Edinburgh streets currently operate lower speed limits, which are controlled by speed bumps and traffic calming measures.
Police chiefs have been hesitant to put resources into speed traps, but they will now actively enforce rules following a deal with city leaders.
Lesley Hinds, Edinburgh City Council's transport convenor, said the plans would "send a clear message" to motorists.
She said that in addition to being safer and better for the environment,"slower traffic makes streets more attractive to residents, pedestrians, cyclists and children, improves the environment for business and enhances quality of life."
The council made monitoring 20mph areas part of its "service level agreement" with Police Scotland, which gives a £2.6 million boost to community policing. The agreement is the first of its kind, and gives city leaders a refund option if officers are switched from their community role without approval.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article