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Speed cameras to become more accountable
RICHARD BALLS
14 September 2004 07:15
A watchdog group that would oversee the work of Norfolk's speed camera partnership and make it more publicly accountable has been proposed.
Police authority members and county councillors would sit on the monitoring group, which is one of several proposals contained in a joint report from Norfolk council chief executive Tim Byles and Chief Constable Andy Hayman.
The independent body would report to the county council Cabinet and Norfolk Police Authority, meet in public and publish its agenda papers in advance to enable wider public scrutiny.
The recommendation has arisen from a major review of the management of the county's speed cameras, which was launched after a scathing police authority report on the Norfolk Casualty Reduction Partner-ship.
The EDP revealed last week that the camera in Grapes Hill, Norwich ? the most unpopular yellow-box speed camera in the county ? is to be switched back on after the head of the partnership said its siting met Department for Transport criteria.
Police decided not to take any further action on more than 300 offences that were contained on film in the camera on the day it was temporarily taken out of action in April.
The proposed monitoring group would:
Take an overview of the overall work programme to reduce road casualties and consider the strategy within which it takes place;
Advise on an overall casualty reduction plan and its targets;
Monitor the work of the Safety Camera Board, review the operational case for 2005-06 and "monitor progress in sufficient detail to give confidence to the police authority and county council that full and proper oversight was being carried out".
Commenting on the report, Mr Byles said: "Members of the county council were keen to see arrangements which would allow much greater public scrutiny of the manage-ment of safety cameras in Norfolk. This is also an important issue for the people of Norfolk. As a result of a public consultation last year, we discovered that road safety is among their top concerns and it therefore became one of the county council's eight key priorities.
"It is essential that the safety partnership is well managed, accountable and transparent, but we must remember that speed is a major contributor to road accidents, and safety cameras play an important role in reducing speed."
Mr Hayman said: "Safety cameras save lives. But it is vital that the people of Norfolk have confidence in the way these cameras are managed. The formation of a monitoring group, open to public scrutiny, would be a major step towards achieving this.
"It would also provide the safety camera partnership with a far more robust frame-work in which to continue towards making our county's roads safer."
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I thnk Mr Hayman is in for one hell of a shock.
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