Swindon Council Calls a Halt to its Speed Cameras

This is the first council in Britain to stop the fixed camera funding. All of the monies raised by the cameras goes directly to the Government and they then give amounts of the monies to the councils to be used on their road safety, the amounts being relevant to the accident statistics.

It is now felt though by councillors that a new way forward is needed as the accidents and deaths on the Wiltshire councils roads has started to rise again, although the police maintain that the cameras have cut accidents.

The decision to withdraw the funding was made unanimously by the council's cabinet last week. They have decided that £320,000 that they put into the Safety Camera Partnership could be better spent elsewhere like more street lighting or warning signs.

Tory councillor Peter Greenhalgh who thought up the idea told BBC Radio 5Live that he didn't feel that the current road safety policy was working. Although only 6% of accidents are due to speeding most of the Governments road safety money is invested back into the cameras.

He said "I can see that's wrong and I think the people of this country can see that's wrong."

The Wiltshire Police believe the cameras have been working and they say that in the locations of the cameras there has been a 70% drop in serious accidents.

The council is planning to increase the use of the hand held cameras.

Thursday 23rd October 2008

For the full story follow the link below:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7685550.stm