Safe Speed Forums

Speed camera details to be published
By David Millward, Transport Editor 8:00AM GMT 29 Dec 2010

Motorists are to be told how many drivers have been caught speeding by individual cameras under plans which will reveal the biggest money spinners in the country.
Statistics on individual speed cameras are to be published.
Until now most partnerships were reluctant to admit which cameras were the biggest earners, normally only releasing the information following a Freedom of Information application.

But under proposals drawn up by Mike Penning, the road safety minister, they will have to publish information to justify the use of cameras.
"For the first time people will be able to see whether their local cameras are really cutting accidents or just being used as cash cows," said a Whitehall source.
One Gatso at the southern end of the M11 in Essex raked in £2.3 million in fines over five years. Others earn safety camera partnerships several hundred thousand pounds a year.
It is the latest move by the Coalition, which said it wanted to end the "war on the motorist".

Information is likely to include accident rates, vehicle speeds , the number of motorists caught and even how many have been offered training as an alternative to points on their licence.
The move comes as the Association of Chief Police Officers consider proposals to offer more motorists speed awareness courses instead of a fine and three points on their licence.

This year forces and safety camera partnerships are expected to make £7 million from the courses. Unlike money raised from speeding fines which goes to the Treasury, they are entitled to keep the fees.
Under the proposals, which will be discussed by chief constables next month, the threshold below which courses will be offered to motorists would be raised by three miles an hour.

It would mean courses would be offered to motorists travelling up to 42 mph in a 30 mph zone, rather than 39 mph. For a 40 mph area the threshold will be raised from 50 to 53 and, in a 50 mph zone, from 61 to 64 mph.
This cash will be vital for partnerships who have been hit by the Coalition's decision to end Whitehall funding for new cameras, which has already seen a number taken out of commission.
Where cameras remain, the Coalition believes that local voters should be told how they are being used and how effective they have been in reducing casualties.

"Public bodies should be accountable and if taxpayers' money is being spent on speed cameras then it is right that information about their effectiveness is available to the public," said Mike Penning, road safety minister
"The proposals I have announced today will help show what impact cameras are having on accident and casualty rates and also how the police are dealing with offenders.
"This is in line with our commitment to improve transparency of government data so that the public are able to make more informed judgements about the work of local and central government."

The Department will be working with police and local authority representatives as well as the Highways Agency to discuss the details of what should be published and how. The final requirements will then be confirmed in time for publication in April 2011.
The move was welcomed by Andrew Howard, the AA's head of road safety. "We have always supported transparency as a way of making cameras publicly acceptable."

Robert Gifford, executive director of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety. "I am completely comfortable with this. It is the sort of thing better partnerships will have been doing and it is building on good practice."