Safe Speed Forums

http://www.mk-news.co.uk/news/luton/200 ... 20cash.lpf


Luton on Sunday:

Whitehall cuts road safety cash

A pioneering scheme to cut injuries and deaths on roads is facing Government cutbacks in the same week as the Christmas drink driving campaign was launched.

The organisation which enforces speed cameras across Luton - the Bedfordshire and Luton Casualty Reduction Partnership (BLCRP) - could have its Government grant reduced by as much as £40,000 - which is almost a quarter of its entire budget.

Fears about the slash in funding have come about because the Government is changing the way the BLCRP receives its funding next year.

Instead of a direct grant to the police, the Government will pay the money for safety schemes direct to local councils - in this case Bedfordshire County Council and Luton Borough Council.

Both councils are braced to hear in the next week how much they might get but fears have already been raised that it will be less than previous years.

There have already been a series of crisis meetings between Bedfordshire Police Authority and the councils about the issue.

The Luton member on the police authority, Liberal democrat councillor Martin Pantling, said: “Any cut will be no Christmas present to the police, at a time of year when much effort goes into bearing down on drink driving or reckless overtaking.

“Effects will be fewer police officers and staff enforcing the safety cameras and while not everyone likes cameras, we don’t want to see a rise in deaths on the road.

“The police authority is aware of this issue and there have been constructive discussions with the police and both councils to try to protect this safety money.

“I know that councillors on both councils are keen to see the reduction in deaths and injuries that has been brought about by the partnership continue.” He added: “It’s fair to say though that the funding threat has created some insecurity, because we don’t know how many police officers or staff posts will be affected until we know what councils can put in.” Carol Jones from the Casualty Reduction Partnership confirmed to this newspaper: “We don’t know what the exact figures are.

The anticipation is the amount available from the Government for our area will be less than in previous years.” She said that throughout Bedfordshire and Luton fatal and serious accidents were down by 26 per cent last year and an independent survey of effectiveness at camera sites revealed a 72 per cent drop in fatal and serious injury – the best in England.

She added: “While there is no question that the safety cameras in our area have made a major contribution they are just one element of the area’s overall road safety strategy.” Luton Borough Council spokeswoman Lisa Levy said: “The indicative grant for the Casualty Reduction Partnership was less than the expected spend for this financial year.

“We cannot say what the effect will be on the partnership although we do expect the amount of speed camera enforcement to be reduced. Road safety projects carried out by the borough council will not be affected.” Rachel Burr from road safety campaigning group Brake said: “Speed kills and speed cameras have been proven to save lives by reducing crashes and casualties.

“Moves to reduce the number of speed cameras are a step in the wrong direction –we need to up enforcement of traffic laws and toughen up on lawbreakers if we are to reduce daily carnage on the roads.”

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Interesting... I wonder what's going to be in the '5th Year Report' that's about due? Standby for increasingly good news, I reckon.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

Sounds very interesting - stories i hear (in this part of the world ) are that although the County are part of the partnership - that's in name only. Passing financial control back to the CCounty, might just mean the County councillors getting back in control - and at least they are accountable to the voters -so who knows,a seat or two lost ,might just bring sanity back into road safety at a local level.

Is this to be nationwide? Aside from curbing the scamerata somewhat, I doubt that devolving control to the councils will have any beneficial effects - after all, they're the bodies setting these crazy speed limits!
In the final analysis, it's probably just a way to keep more in the dictatorship's hands.

As i said -my info was that the county councils are sleeping partners ,and kept that way - and the majority of councillors are brainwashed into the SCP ways - what would happen if once again they felt the threat of loss of seat and changed sides ---nothing changes a politicians views faster than upset voters.

hold on....that makes their entire budget £160,000. I thought that the SCP spend was over 2 million

The table shows receipts from fixed penalties, expenditure by the partnership and the balance accruing to the Treasury for the Bedfordshire and Luton safety camera partnership area.

2003–04
Receipts from fixed penalties 3,655,200
Expenditure 2,292,260
Balance, accruing to the Treasury 362,940

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Speed camera policy Kills

Let's hope the grant reduction is actually £400,000 then.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

Now thats more like it.

This shift in financing is very significant.

I think this is going to be a trend. Now they have to rely on hand-outs (sorry budget) they will get squeezed...shame!

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Speed camera policy Kills

If they want to make it pay then surely all they're going to do is to make use of the new road safety bill and ratchet down enforcement levels. If the SCPS did that then they will soon get they're income back up. Having a van pulling people on a busy road at +6mph is going to catch only about 2.3rds of choosing +1mph or +2mph. With the new graduated penalities then they have carte blanche to ignore ACPO guidelines and screw people right at the bottom of the thresholds. With councils being in on this they'll further reduce limits and screw people even more as soon all NSL roads will get stuck at 40 and most people will ignore such stupid limits and be done.

I think this was suspected a while ago as the reducing of limits is clearly the precursor of more idiotic enforcement. The cash reducing strategy is there to pretend that they aren't really supporting the much hated camera programme and claim the SCPs are self financing so they're nothing to do with HMG.

I don't think it is a good sign at all. The small matter of the 5 year report will be glossed over and it won't say anything other than cameras work but a few sites might have to be changed as KSI aren't reducing at those sites so they might remove the camera but stick it somewhere without accidents where there are plenty of people exceeding the limit. The radar/laser detector jamming is also part of this as I bet the requirements on visibility will be quietly removed too just to keep the revenue up

Speed cameras are unpopular, there is no doubt about that, however in the past, the scamerati have always argued it is speeders who fund the project. Not any more.

From 2007 money now comes from the Council who will have to make up any shortfall from council tax money. Surrey has already announced that it will make up the short fall. So not only do we have pointless obsession with speed enforcement focusing on just 5% of accident causation. We now pay for it out of our council tax.

Every pound spent of cameras is a pound that could have been spent on improving and maintaining our roads, improving pedestrian facilities and targetting drunk and illegal drivers.

I mentioned this about a year ago.

Stop hypothecation and make the police/LA's pay for enforcement out of their budgets.

Then we'll REALLY see if they think it's a worthwhile enterprise!! MOre Police or more CAms??