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Motoring news

Camera ban "tokenism" says road safety group

24/10/2008

A decision to remove speed cameras from Swindon's roads has been rejected as "tokenism" by road safety charity the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM).

Swindon Borough Council has become the first local authority to withdraw its funding from its local speed camera partnership, which will effectively end the use of eight cameras in the borough.

Earlier this year, the Conservative-run council's highways councillor Peter Greenhalgh described fixed cameras as "a blatant tax on the motorist". Quoted in yesterday's Telegraph, he added: "People being killed on our roads is possibly one of the most important factors which affect people in this country.

"What speed cameras are not doing is reducing the number of people being killed."

Other road safety groups have criticised the council, with Brake describing its decision as "a very dangerous experiment with people's lives".

The IAM highlighted the need for fixed cameras to be used in conjunction with "cops in cars", as part of a range of road safety tools.

However, the number of police officers patrolling the roads has fallen from 7,806 in 1998-99, to 6,299 in 2007-08, according to a written Commons answer.

IAM research and policy director Neil Grieg said: "This move by one local authority smacks of tokenism - and may fuel public cynicism that the priority is saving cash rather than saving lives.

"To describe revenue from safety cameras as a 'tax' is emotive, but not true."

Wiltshire Police will continue to use handheld cameras in Swindon to check the speed of motorists.