Safe Speed Forums

Speed cameras could be switched off to save money

Deborah Linton

August 19, 2010

Speed cameras across Greater Manchester may have to be switched off – because there isn't enough money to keep them going. There is only cash to operate them for another eight months.

Karen Delaney from Drive Safe – the Greater Manchester Casualty Reduction Partnership which runs the roadside cameras – said: "It is possible that we will have to stop running some cameras."

The group’s road safety grant has been slashed by 40 per cent. Unless new funding is found, the organisation will have to turn off some of the region’s 245 cameras it operates along with the ten Greater Manchester councils, the police and the Highways Agency.

The Department for Transport has cut its national road safety budget by £38m and ended funding for new fixed speed cameras amid massive spending cuts. Ms Delaney, said: "We've been lucky this year in that we've been able to continue a full operation because we had funds left over from last year.

"We will only know our funding situation for the future following the government spending review in October.

"We would like to think we will still be in a position to do some enforcement work but we will be relying heavily on partners such as the police."

She said the cuts meant money available for new projects had been considerably reduced but that existing ones will not be affected for this year.

She said: "All new capital projects have been put on hold for this financial year, this includes the upgrade of existing safety camera equipment, new safety camera locations and other road safety capital improvements.

"However, any projects and resources currently in place, including all existing safety cameras will not be affected by the cuts." The number of people killed or seriously injured at camera sites in Greater Manchester is down by over 25 per cent since 2007, when partnerships like Drive Safe were formed nationally.

Drive Safe is funded by the government and all money from fines goes back to The Treasury. Any surplus is then given back to the partnership in the form of a grant. The government has not kept national figures on the amount of money generated by speed camera fines since before 2007. But the last regional figures available, from 2006/07, showed that more than £4m was paid in fines by motorists in Greater Manchester.

Ellen Booth, campaigns officer for road safety charity Brake, said: "If we start removing cameras without putting in any alternative then those drivers who have no intention of staying within speed limits have no deterrent."

But Bolton councillor Stuart Lever said: "They're just mugging machines. I think we need to bring back more traffic police and speed traps – there's a much bigger deterrent in the threat of being pulled over by officers."

Ellen Booth, campaigns officer for road safety charity Brake, said: "If we start removing cameras without putting in any alternative then those drivers who have no intention of staying within speed limits have no deterrent."