Evening Post news editor Kevan Blackadder describes the speed workshop run by Northamptonshire Police which he attended after he was caught speeding in the county.

I saw the speed camera flash, but didn’t believe it could have been me that set it off.

I was sure I had been driving sensibly through the village of Geddington, returning from visiting friends.

Imagine my surprise when I received a letter telling me I was to be prosecuted for speeding at 37mph in a 30mph zone. Not only would I be fined £60 but three penalty points would be put on my licence.

At least that would have happened if the speed camera had been anywhere else other than Northamptonshire.

The letter also offered me the option of attending a “Speed Workshop”.

By attending the workshop, drivers can escape prosecution. You still have to pay £60, to cover the course’s cost, but the points are not added to your licence.

I decided the (slow) drive to Northampton was worth it and arrived at the three-hour course expecting a lengthy ticking off, alongside other “real speeders”, dangerous drivers who had put lives at risk on narrow country lanes.

In fact, all 12 of us (all 12 of us men funnily enough . . . ) had been caught travelling at between 34 and 37mph in a 30mph zone. Anyone going faster is not offered the course option.

The course was run by two road safety officers, former policeman Ian Butler and former firefighter Gordon Nelson. It quickly emerged they weren’t there to shout but to make us think – and it worked!

Mr Butler said: “If you have an accident at less than 30mph you may not suffer serious injury. If it happens at more than 40mph you probably will. That’s why we are concentrating on drivers like you.”

If a child is hit by a car at 20mph, there is a five per cent chance the youngster will die. At 30mph the figure rises to 25 per cent. At 40mph some 85 per cent of children hit will be killed.

Northamptonshire police also use mobile safety camera teams. These highly visible vans with cameras film cars speeding. If there are concerns about speeders in a particular street, the vans target the area.

Mr Butler said: “Our whole policy is aimed at slowing drivers down.”

Most of us admitted as the course started that we were there to protect our licences, but there does seem to be evidence the policy works.

Before the scheme began in 1999, there were 76 deaths on Northamptonshire’s roads. The figure fell to 55 the following year and to 47 in 2001.