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Your legal guide to motoring |
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Speed camera fines rise sevenfold
The number of
speeding prosecutions and fines has increased sevenfold in ten years, figures
obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show.
Conservative MP Mark Field's request found speed camera offences rose from 262,000
in 1996 to 1,865,000 in 2006. |
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The Cities of London and Westminster MP told BBC 2's Daily Politics
he wanted the "pendulum turned back to the long suffering motorist".
Road safety charity Brake says cameras help catch drivers who endanger lives.
The number of speed cameras in England and Wales rose from under 2,000 in 2000
to more than 5,500 by 2006.
In a film for Wednesday's Daily Politics, Mr Field said cameras were "more about
money raising than safety on roads".
He says he objects to the "excessive use" of the cameras and the "overzealous
penalising of drivers".
"The use of speed cameras transformed the disqualification system into one of
Russian roulette."
The government had raised huge sums through fines, he added, and yet, at the same
time, the number of traffic officers on duty had fallen by 20%.
The "explosion" in cameras had done little to address serious problems such as
the number of people still driving unlicensed vehicles or not paying any road
tax.
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Mr Field wants more
local authorities to follow Swindon's example - the Wiltshire borough which has
voted to stop funding them.
Swindon intends to use the £320,000 it spends on cameras every year on road safety
projects instead.
But Brake, the national road safety charity, described Swindon's decision as "a
very dangerous experiment with people's lives".
Its spokeswoman, Jane Whitham, said: "Speed cameras are an important tool in catching
drivers who insist on breaking the law and putting lives in danger."
The AA president, Edmund King told the programme a decline in traffic police was
a more serious concern.
"A speed camera does not pick up the illegal foreign truck driver or boy racer
with stolen plates but a traffic cop can," he said.
"We need to reverse this trend and increase traffic cops not only to make our
roads safer but to make society safer."
Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon indicated recently that traditional fixed-point
speed cameras could be replaced by others which measure drivers' average speed.
The cameras currently in use were widely regarded by the public as "arbitrary"
and "unfair", he told a newspaper.
Average speed cameras could be fairer as they encourage safer driving and reduce
fuel consumption, he added.
However, the Department of Transport has stressed any change could only follow
extensive research conducted by the police, councils and other institutions responsible
for road safety.
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