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Fresh fight over speeding charge
Oct 22 2004
By Andy Probert, Evening Mail
A defiant district nurse plans a House of Lords appeal after her legal landmark victory against a speeding charge was crushed.
A High Court judge in London this week ruled Redditch magistrates were wrong to clear Claire Evans, of Bearwood, of speeding last December.
Miss Evans, aged 36, had the speeding charge dismissed when her lawyers argued Worcestershire County Council acted unlawfully by lowering a 40mph speed limit to 30mph on the B4551 Bromsgrove to Halesowen road at Romsley, near Birmingham, without public consultation.
But the Crown Prosecution Service successfully challenged the decision in the High Court, leaving Miss Evans facing a renewed speeding charge.
After the case, Miss Evans said she was " seriously considering" taking the battle to the House of Lords.
She said: "The decision is just farcical and I am very disappointed at the outcome as thousands of other motorists caught in the same way across the UK could have challenged their fines as well."
She was caught by a mobile speed camera in August 2002 as she drove her Vauxhall Corsa at 42mph between the homes of patients.
She was unaware of the new 30mph limit on the road, which six months earlier had been a 40mph zone.
Magistrates cleared her after they were told she was caught unfairly because she did not see any speed limit signs as she joined the road from a side street.
But the landmark win was quashed by the High Court, which said the council had issued the speed limits lawfully.
