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26/07/2010
Road safety campaigners have spoken of their "horror" at the decision to turn off the entire speed camera network in Oxfordshire, and have urged other councils not to follow suit in implementing similar cuts.
The reaction from charity Brake came as Oxfordshire County Council withdrew from the Thames Valley Safer Roads Partnership, following a cut of £600,000 in the council's Government funding - ostensibly as part of its pledge to end central funding for speed cameras.
The decision is understood to mean that the county's 72 speed cameras will be switched off and that other road safety initiatives will cease.
The measure comes just weeks after the emergency Budget warned of 25% cuts across all departments by 2014. Brake claimed at the time that this would effectively mean 40% being slashed from the road safety budget for the current year.
The charity's deputy chief executive, Julie Townsend, said: "We are horrified that vital road safety work is grinding to a halt as a result of draconian funding cuts made by the Government.
"We are urging local authorities around the country to spread these funding cuts across departments - to at least ensure that existing measures that are proven to prevent deaths and injuries are not withdrawn."
The charity has previously said the Department for Transport had told it that local authorities would be free to choose their spending priorities, swapping funding from other areas to make up the shortfall in road safety budgets.
However, speaking on BBC Radio Four's Today programme, Oxfordshire County Council leader, Conservative councillor Keith Mitchell, said that there were more pressing areas to concentrate on - such as vulnerable children and the elderly.
He pointed to a "dichotomy" in the way the cameras generate money.
"We bear the cost of the cameras, the Government takes the fines," he explained.
Councillor Mitchell acknowledged that there are "a lot fewer" actual camera units inside the "70-odd yellow boxes around the county", and that they are "moved around constantly" to keep drivers on their toes.
"Our view is that this is the last year when the Government will provide any money for speed cameras," he said.
"We've simply anticipated their decision - we've taken the cut now."
Last week it emerged that three speed cameras in Derby had been decommissioned on the grounds that they had not proved effective in improving road safety, and that a further 17 were under review.
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