Police in Oakham have sought to allay road safety fears by targeting speeding hotspots with data-driven insight.

Speeding concerns raised with Leicestershire Police by residents of Oakham and Barleythorpe have prompted "regular" deployments of a speed enforcement van across "strategic locations", according to one officer, in addition to more high-visibility patrols.

"The enforcement van is a mobile facility which can be deployed to areas of concern, post risk assessment and data gathering," Sergeant Liam Palmer, the neighbourhood police sergeant for Rutland, explained.

"We also deploy officers who are trained with the mobile speed laser device to tackle speeding issues."

Sgt Palmer added that offending drivers are dealt with "robsutly", but while multiple reports of speeding have emerged from Oakham, the police response has not been limited to the town.

He continued: "Road safety is a priority on all four of the beats across Rutland, so this is by no means an issue for Oakham alone.

"When we receive reports of road safety concerns, we look to work with our traffic management team to obtain data to clarify where the problems exist and then will look at enforcement opportunities alongside this. We operate speed enforcement on all major roads."

While targeting speeding on the ground, officers in Oakham have also engaged with members of the community to raise awareness of speeding dangers, while encouraging safer driving "behaviours".

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Sgt Palmer added: "As dedicated neighbourhood teams we do interact with our community members and seek to improve the concerns that they may have, as we are policing for our communities by consent."