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We'll run our own speed cameras say city chiefs




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By Alex Forsyth
Political editor
Portsmouth looks set to pull out of Hampshire's speed camera partnership – but it won't mean the end of the fixed camera.
Earlier this month council leader Gerald Vernon-Jackson hinted at plans to scrap speed cameras.

Instead, he wanted to use the cash to get police out on the city streets with mobile speed guns.

But after initial talks with fellow council leaders he says the city could do both.

The Lib Dem said the city council is now looking at taking over the city's fixed cameras.

'We are trying to make sure that if we did withdraw from the partnership then we could make speed cameras work better and cost less,' said Cllr Vernon-Jackson.

'That doesn't necessarily mean getting rid of the fixed cameras – we could inherit them and run them ourselves more cost efficiently.'

The city council pays £380,000 a year to the Hampshire's Safer Roads Partnership.

The partnership runs 30 fixed cameras across Hampshire, including seven in Portsmouth.

And last year it raked in £5 a minute from motorists, with £2.7m worth of fines dished out in 2006-7.

The move comes as Swindon Borough Council became the first town in the UK to do away with fixed cameras.

Cllr Vernon-Jackson, who attended a meeting earlier this month to sound out other council leaders on withdrawing funding from the partnership, said: 'I can absolutely understand why Swindon has done this.

'We are also trying to look at ways to make our money work more effectively.'

Cllr Mel Kendal, who is in charge of environmental matters at Hampshire Council Council, agreed there was a need for mobile units but said the council was committed to the camera partnership.

He said: 'The partnership was set up to install fixed cameras at accident areas to reduce accident rates, and it has done that successfully.'

In Swindon council leaders say police will still use hand-held speed devices.

Alternative speed-reducing measures are also being considered, including education and training for motorists and reduced speed limits in problem areas.

alex.forsyth@thenews.co.uk