Safe Speed Forums

Future of speed camera group remains in doubt
Saturday, July 10, 2010, 11:00
POLICE in Devon have insisted no decisions have yet been taken about the possible closure of an organisation which operates speed cameras in the county.
It is understood funding for the Devon and Cornwall Safety Camera Partnership has not been guaranteed beyond the end of the current financial year.
Plans are being drawn up if the organisation has to be wound up but a police spokesman said: "Nothing has been decided yet.
"The Government has announced it will reduce road safety grants by about 40 per cent and the Devon and Cornwall Safety Camera Partnership is currently working with all its funding partners to look at how that will be managed in the future."
The move could mean less use of the fixed roadside camera points, and fewer mobile speed enforcement vans.
The mobile units are said to be most at risk because they require a person to operate them, so are more expensive to run.
The 35 civilian staff who work for the partnership have been warned their jobs are under threat.
Superintendent Tim Swarbrick, of Devon and Cornwall Police, said he would be "very concerned" at any reduction in the use of speed cameras.
Road casualties in the force area had fallen by 40 per cent over the past five years and safety cameras had played a "significant role" in that, the superintendent added.

The charity Road Peace, which campaigns to help the victims of traffic crashes, said the move would be a "backwards step and a disaster".
It comes just a few weeks after the organisation confirmed that There are no plans to reduce the number of speed cameras in Devon despite a move made in a neighbouring county.
A third of Somerset's speed cameras have been removed because speeds and casualties have fallen.

A spokesman for Devon and Cornwall Safety Camera Partnership said every speed camera location in the region was regularly reviewed, but there were no immediate plans to reduce the number.
"There are some 95 sites in the counties," he said.
"The amount of requests we get (for new fixed cameras and mobile enforcement) still far outweigh the resources we have available.
"On average we have seen approximately a 60 per cent reduction in the level of killed or serious injury collisions at our camera sites and also reductions in the minor injury collisions.
"This represents reduced levels of suffering and misery caused by injury collisions in Devon and Cornwall. However, the level of injury collisions still is unacceptably high.
"As a partnership, we would like to take this opportunity to thank the large number of motorists who have chosen join the majority of drivers in moderating their speeds, which contributes to the reducing levels of injury experienced on Devon and Cornwall's roads."

This is Plymouth here plymouth_herald_express - Camera group faces cutbacks
Saturday, July 10, 2010, 07:00

A PLYMOUTH-BASED partnership that deploys speed cameras across Devon and Cornwall is preparing to shed staff and even wind itself up due to funding cuts.
Devon and Cornwall Safety Camera Partnership, a joint venture by police and the four main local authorities in the two counties, is dependant on funding grants from central government.

Police Superintendent Tim Swarbrick, chairman of the partnership, said the group had already had its funding cut this year, and following the change of government it was not clear how much money, if any, it would get next year.
He said: "It's a fact that a percentage of our staff, maybe up to 50 per cent, will be either redeployed or made redundant by November this year.
"The remaining people could also have to go, unless funding is sorted out, by March next year."
Devon and Cornwall Safety Camera Partnership has mobile teams based in Plymouth, Bodmin and Exeter, with its main office at Crownhill Police Station, were about 25 staff are based.
Mr Swarbrick said he was still hopeful of getting some funding next year to allow the organisation to carry on, but said it was "a very serious and sad situation."
He said: "Over the past five years we've reduced road casualties, including fatalities, by 40 per cent.
"The partnership has played a large part in that."

Police figures show that in the mid 1990s, there were more than 250 serious road casualties per year in Plymouth.
In the 2009/10 year, there were just 36.
News that the partnership's future is in doubt comes shortly after criticism from the campaign group the Taxpayer's Alliance, which said the cameras were being used to "squeeze" money out of motorists.
Drivers in Devon and Cornwall paid £1,436,880 in fines in 2008/9 after being caught by the partnership's speed cameras.
Mark Wallace, campaigns director for the Taxpayers' Alliance, said: "We and a lot of motorists in particular would welcome an end to the obsession with speed cameras.
"They have proved very expensive and not productive in terms of road safety."

Mr Wallace said research by the Taxpayers' Alliance showed that since speed cameras were introduced, the rate of improvement in road safety had declined.
A spokesman for Devon and Cornwall Safety Camera Partnership said the money collected from fines in the two counties had fallen significantly in recent years, from a peak of over £3million in 2003/4.
She said that far from trying to squeeze money out of people, 46 per cent of motorists caught speeding were offered an "educational alternative" to a fine last year, such as being sent a warning and information, or being offered the chance to take a safety course.