Points on your licence - are they permanent?

[squiperly]

Recently while on a visit to Wiltshire, I was clocked for doing 40mph in a 30 mph zone which I resent because I was in an area I hadn't been to before, and while one minute I was in open countryside where the limit was 70mph, overtaking a car which seemed unusually slow, when I got past it I saw the sign for 30 and even though I braked strongly, there was apparently a speed camera almost immediately after the sign which clocked me as I was trying my best to slow to the limit.
I have been driving for over 30 years with a completely clean licence and clean insurance history and I feel very angry that I'm being prosecuted in such a circumstance.
I'm informed I'll have 3 points on my licence - will they be there permanently?
Has anyone gone to court to contest a speeding fine and what was the outcome?
Is it better to pay the �60 and have the points? I don't want to end up paying thousands (which I haven't got) in costs.
To add insult to injury, there were signs immediately after the camera which said (Lose the attitude not your licence) which I find draconian, and give me the impression that it's the police who have an attitude.

[ugly_bob]

the points will be there for 3 years.
You've got no discourse to challenge the decision by what you say.
Unless the 30 sign was still on dual carriageway. I'm assuming you were on a dual carriageway because you said the speed limit was 70.

[Loosehead]

Well without going into the whys and wherefores of the speed limit change you describe, the answers to your points are thus:

- You will get 3 points and they stay for 4 years, and they count for "Totting up" purposes for 3 years.
- People have gone to court to contest but generally fail mainly because they where in fact speeding. In your case you admit doing 40 in a 30 so there is nothing to contest. the most lenient penalty is the one you have been offerred, ie 3 points and �60 (standard fixed penalty).

Essentially 90% of the cameras are for revenue collection purposes rather than road safety, it's just a matter of getting street wise. If it's taken you this long to get caught then you have been extroadinarily vigilant up to now, well done.

[JudgeJ]

Take the offer of the fixed penalty. You have no grounds upon which to go to court and plead not guilty. If you do so and are subsequently found guilty at trial you will almost certainly be fined more than �60 and will also be liable to pay a contribution towards prosecution costs which may be to to three hundred pounds.

On another tack, are you sure the limit was 70mph immediately before it became 30mph? It is most unusual to see a speed limit reduction of 40mph in one step. If the road was not a dual carriageway the national speed limit for cars is 60mph. This could explain why the car you overtook "seemed unusually slow".

[WoWo]

"I was clocked for doing 40mph in a 30 mph zone which I resent because I was in an area I hadn't been to before"

So in other words you had no idea of the road conditions or hazzards ahead, yet you still went over the speed limit.

[Sphinx_Svens]

I agree with WoWo .... and just because you hadn't been there before, why was it ok to break the speed limit? ..huh?

[THECORBYLOON]

I agree wi squiperly. It's annoying having to obey all these limits and road signs when you're new to the area. It'd be so much easier to do U-turns when you felt like it, ignore the one-way signs. "Pedestrianized area?" that's what they think. The locals have it easy. We should be allowed to use wir discretion...

[homer75]

The country is infested with these cameras which are just revenue gatherers and, in my opinion, have little to do with 'safety'. More traffic cops would be a far better way to deal with the nut cases. Afraid you will just have to grin and bear it though. I know several divers who, like yourself, have been driving for many years without a blemish on their licences and who are now picking up penalty points. Get yourself a GPS camera detector ( they are comletely legal ) and you will be given advanced notice of the camera locations as you drive. Essential ( as you are well aware ) in unfamiliar territory.

[squiperly]

Thanks to those people who took the time to actually fully read what I had written and gave sensible helpful answers.

To the rest, I did NOT say I was doing 70mph, I said the SPEED limit was 70mph.

[THECORBYLOON]

squiperly you said " To the rest, I did NOT say I was doing 70mph, I said the SPEED limit was 70mph. "

If you "took the time to factually fully read" the replies you'd see that no-one said you were doing 70mph.

You said "..there was apparently a speed camera almost immediately after the sign," did you not see it then? Maybe yir observational skills are letting you down?

[wrigaj1]

'To add insult to injury, there were signs immediately after the camera which said (Lose the attitude not your licence) which I find draconian, and give me the impression that it's the police who have an attitude'

sounds like someone else has an attitude reading the response! (',)

[dunlop]

http://www.dvla.gov.uk/drivers/endorsem.htm

[bazmoore]

well now you know why the guy was going unusually slow!
he was observing the speed limit
slow down speed freak