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Speeding fines treble in region
by Phil Doherty, Sunday Sun
SPEEDING fines imposed on the region’s motorists have almost trebled since Labour came to power, it has been revealed.
From 1997 to the latest official figures in 2005 the number has risen from 48,706 to 115,800, coinciding with a large increase in the number of fixed cameras throughout the region.
At £60 a speeding ticket, this means drivers forked out £4 million more in fines than 10 years ago.
The Cleveland force area saw the largest rise from to 24,912 followed by Cumbria from 4882 to 27,441.
A Cumbria police spokesperson said: “The rise in the number of fixed penalty tickets between 1997 and 2005 can be attributed to the formation of Cumbria Safety Camera Partnership in April 2003.
“The increase in both fixed camera sites and mobile units consequently resulted in an increase of fixed penalty notices been issued in the same period.
“Since the formation of Cumbria Safety Camera Partnership we have seen a 72 per cent reduction in casualties at locations identified where a number of people have died or been injured.”
In the Northumbria force area fines rose from 25,693 to 55,708.
Jeremy Forsberg, a spokesman for the multi-agency Northumbria Safer Road Initiative, said: “At camera sites we have seen a 36pc reduction of casualties and speeds falling. Research also shows the majority of people support speed cameras and 42 per cent want more of them. Only 11 per cent of people want to see their use reduced.
“People should look at speed cameras as memorials to people who have died in accidents at the sites.”
However, Paul Smith of Safe Speed, a campaigning group against speed cameras, disagrees.
He claimed: “Speed cameras have been a road safety disaster and the policy has failed. The UK has gone from having the fastest reduction in road fatalities in the 1980s and is now in 20th place out of 27 countries.
“Independent research by Oxford University looked at hospital accidents admissions and found there hadn’t been a reduction in road accidents but a one per cent increase.
“At the same time the Department of Transport were saying that there had been a 35 per cent decrease.
“But what really is happening is the police are now putting borderline injuries in the ‘slight’ category and not the ‘serious’ category to meet their targets.”
Meanwhile Durham, which does not have a safety camera partnership, saw speeding fines fall in the period from 3213 to 2816. North Yorkshire also saw a reduction . . . from 11,679 to 4923.