Safe Speed Forums

BRIDPORT: Council cuts hit speed camera
2nd February 2011 - by Paul Crompton

A NOTORIOUS traffic hot spot will not get an immediate replacement speed camera despite clocking more than 3,600 motoring offences last year.

The burnt out Chideock speed camera is the latest casualty of Dorset County Council cuts and is not set to be replaced until at least the next financial year. A new camera would cost up to £41,000.

Arsonists have twice targeted the west-bound camera into Chideock, which was responsible for 3,606 notices of intended prosecution in 2009/10.

The camera has been redundant since last November’s arsonist attack, despite a rise of 299 offences from the previous year.

A spokesman for Dorset Road Safe, a DCC partner responsible for the speed camera, said the case for the replacement camera was still “up in the air”.

They said: “It will very much depend on whether we can fund its replacement. That’s why it’s up in the air.
“With everything going on with the budget that’s why we cannot say we are going to replace it. It will depend on the budget but we are not in a position to replace it at this time.
“We are always looking at things carefully, that’s why there has been no immediate action to replace it.
“We just need to work out where we are to budget funds for it next year.
“We are coming up to new financial year and we are obviously looking at whether to budget from this year’s or next year’s budget.
“We are not able to say definitely if it’s going ahead and it’s hard to tell people in Chideock something either way when we don’t know.”

The cost of buying a brand new Gatso safety camera is approximately £30,000. Installation could cost a further £5,000 - £10,000, with the annual maintenance of the camera costing between £500 - £1,000.

The money would need to come from DRS’s funding partners.

Chideock is the site of a pioneering scheme whereby villagers became police volunteers to clock speeding motorists and collect data of the volume of traffic along the A35.

The scheme began last July following a meeting between officials and villagers.

The last four months have seen 215 letters sent to motorists found to be speeding by the volunteers. This number includes 95 in September and 78 in October.

The numbers halve in November, the month the camera was burnt out, and fall to just three in December, although it is believed this was due to the blizzards that swept the county that month.

To date there have been no repeat offenders, and no residents of Chideock have been identified speeding.

Police Officers and Police Community Support Officers regularly support the CSW volunteers and will issue tickets to speeding motorists.
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Once again the emphasis is on how many vehicles were exceeding the limit. I would have thought that if safety was the main concern, they should be looking at the number of accidents that had occurred and to wither these had increased or decreased.