The North West Motorway Police Group
Working together to police the roads of the North West
Cheshire, Lancashire and
Merseryside Police work together to as the
North West Motorway Police Group.
The regional control centre is based in Newton-le-Willows
and is responsible for deploying and maintaining contact with
all police and Highways Agency patrol motorways totalling 570
miles, including 73 interchanges and eight service areas.
The group allows the roads police in each of these counties can
work outside their force areas. It also means the three forces work
together in joint operations involving all kinds
of roads policing as well as offering back-up in the event of a
major incident.
The group was set up in June 2008 in partnership with the
Highways Agency. It is made up of more than 100 police officers
from the three forces and is responsible for policing the motorway
network from Cumbria in the north to West Mercia and Staffordshire
to the south, North Wales to the west and Greater Manchester to the
east.
Cheshire has 212 miles of motorway, Merseyside has 88 miles and
Lancashire has 270 miles. The North West Motorway Policing Group
accounts for nearly 22 per cent of all
motorway in England. The network carries more
than 350,000 vehicles every day and more than
£200 million of goods per year.
In the event of a major collision on the M6 at peak time traffic
will back up at a rate of one mile per minute which in turn
costs businesses up to £1 million per hour in trade together with
huge implications on local roads and authorities. This means it is
vital to maintain effecitve and efficient motorway policing.
Main objectives of the group
- Deny criminals the use of the road
- Casualty reduction
- Target anti-social use of vehicles
- Tackle terrorism
- Asset seizure
- Improve public confidence and reassurance
Staff Profile: PC Keith McCarth – Motorway Police Officer
I have been a motorway patrol officer for fourteen years. My
role is extremely varied in its nature, from general patrol work
and enforcement to serious road traffic collisions and from
ANPR
led activity to multi-agency operations, it all takes place on
Cheshire’s motorway network.
Because of the so called ‘travelling corridor’ that the
motorways create our role rarely involves people who actually
reside in Cheshire, most being from much further a field. As a unit
we are part of the North West Motorway Police Group, together with
Merseyside and Lancashire and as such we work with those Forces as
well as outside agencies such as VOSA and the
Highways Agency.
In some ways the motorway is detached from the rest of the
Cheshire Police area, although obviously we can be, and often are,
called upon to assist our colleagues in divisions across the
county.