People are confused after being told speed limits in their village are enforcable after all.

As reported in The Crow last week, residents of Barley had been informed that an error in the Hertfordshire County Council Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) meant speed limits on roads in their village were not legally enforcable, meaning speeding drivers could not be punished.

However, the county council has since released a statement insisting that the speed limits were enforcable all along.

Barley resident Nick White was a member of the village’s Community Speedwatch team, which was told to cease activities because of the problem.

He said: “It’s a very odd and confused situation because we’d been told the limits were definitely not enforcable, and that the problem was affecting other villages too.

“We got this information from several different sources, including a traffic regulation officer.

“But now they’ve changed their mind and decided everything was OK all along.”

Mr White added that he had contacted Hertfordshire Police and Crime Commissioner David Lloyd about the issue.

He said: “What we want to know is whether we would be able to start up the Community Speedwatch scheme again if we wanted to.”

Terry Douris, the county council’s cabinet member for highways, said: “We’ve finished assessing potential discrepancies in the speed limit paperwork for the 30mph areas in Barley.

“I can now confirm that the Barley traffic regulation order is and always has been valid. This means that despite our initial concerns about some possible technical discrepancies the speed limits are and always have been enforceable.

“As a precaution, an emergency traffic regulation order was in effect in Barley while we reviewed the existing order.”

Information about our ongoing review is available on www.hertsdirect.org/highways by following the ‘Reviewing our speed limit traffic regulation orders’ link.