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'Cash cow' camera funding to be axed

18/06/2010

Ministers have restated the Government's pledge not to provide funding for new fixed speed cameras - branding the equipment a "cash cow" for local authority coffers.

Transport minister Mike Penning told Parliament during question time that the Government is set to cut millions of pounds in grants it supplies to councils for cameras, the Daily Mail reports. Instead, Mr Penning encouraged authorities to improve safety on their roads by using other measures to control speeding.

However, he made clear that councils will still be able to invest in new cameras - provided they fund such measures themselves.

Revealing that there are three times as many cameras in use than there were a decade ago, Mr Penning said: "The public must be confident speed cameras are there for road safety - not as a cash cow.

"Under this Government it will not be so."

And responding to claims from former transport minister Jim Fitzpatrick that cameras had cut deaths and injuries on the roads, Mr Penning said that, while they had safety applications, the explosion in numbers had led the public to suspect they were a way of raising funds.

However, the comments were slammed by road safety group Brake. Spokesperson Ellen Booth said it was "terrifying" that ministers were "so set against speed cameras".

"It is very disappointing to hear them talk like this and we are going to do our best to change their minds," she added.

The group was fiercely critical of similar comments about speed cameras made by Transport Secretary Philip Hammond as he took office last month, pledging to "end the war on motorists".

Branding it a "return to the dark ages", Brake chief executive Mary Williams OBE said that it would be "nothing short of a scandal if this life-saving technology sits on shelves rather than streets because of archaic political bias that isn't even popular".

Excess speed was reported as a contributory factor in around a quarter of fatal accidents in 2008. However, it was particularly prevalent among the youngest drivers, being a contributory factor in 41% of deaths among males aged 16 to 25.

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