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UK: More councils expected to ban speed cameras

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  • 23-10-2008 11:40am
    #1
    I.S.T.
    Registered Users Posts: 893 ✭✭✭


    While many councils in the UK are admitting that fixed speed cameras are just about revenue generation not improving safety our RSA insists in ploughing ahead with 300 new fixed cameras next year. Why are we always 20 years behing the UK?

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/oct/23/localgovernment-motoring
    Local authorities to follow in footsteps of Swindon council after concerns that government uses cameras to raise cash

    * Matthew Weaver
    * guardian.co.uk,
    * Thursday October 23 2008 11.14 BST

    Several more authorities are expected to ban speed cameras over the next year, following the lead of Swindon council.

    Last night it became the first in the UK to scrap fixed point speed cameras over concerns that the government is using them to raise money.

    The nine-strong cabinet of the Tory-run council voted unanimously in favour of withdrawing from the partnership that operates local safety cameras.

    The AA predicted that other councils are also likely to use a recent relaxation in transport funding rules, to ditch speed cameras in favour of other traffic calming measures. Portsmouth city council is known to be considering similar moves.

    Andrew Howard, the AA's head of road safety, said: "Other councils will now know they won't be the first, which will make life easier for them if they are thinking about it."

    Asked how many others would follow he said: "It's horribly difficult to say, but I would say six or seven."

    Howard welcomed Swindon's decision. "We are very glad to see there's flexibility in the system and that road safety grant is not only camera money. Cameras are not the only way to skin the road safety problem."

    Ditching cameras was championed by Peter Greenhalgh, Swindon's highways councillor, as a way of improving road safety.

    "I have never said that speed cameras don't work – of course they do. They are effective in stopping people speeding in a particular spot but they are not effective in stopping people being killed or seriously injured on our roads," he told the Swindon Advertiser.

    Greenhalgh's initiative was praised by the Top Gear presenter and pro-motorist columnist Jeremy Clarkson.

    But Greenhalgh said: "I did not become a councillor to be hailed as a hero on Top Gear."

    He pointed out that police will still use hand-held speed cameras in the town. He added that other that alternative speed-reducing measures were being considered by the council, including education and training for motorists and reduced speed limits in problem areas.

    Swindon' council leader, Rod Bluh, said: "Politics is about making policies and it is also about challenging policies if you do not believe they are working. If you think the status quo isn't working then you need to challenge that, however difficult that challenge is.

    Earlier this year Bluh himself admitted once being banned from driving for speeding.

    "I was banned for three months. It has affected my behaviour," he told Sky News in July. "But all cameras do is catch you when you have speeded."
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