Safe Speed Forums

http://www.highland.gov.uk/minutes/head ... 060215.htm

Contains:

19. NORTHERN SAFETY CAMERA PARTNERSHIP

There is circulated Report No RES/21/06 dated 20 January, 2006 by the Director of Corporate Services which updates Members on the work of the Northern Safety Camera Partnership, which was launched in July 2004, and seeks Members approval to extend Highland Council’s involvement with the scheme over the period of the next Business Case, from 1st April 2006 to 31st March 2007.

It is recommended that:
(i) the Committee supports the Council’s continued involvement with the Northern Safety Camera Partnership for the duration of the next Operational Case, which covers the period from April 2006 to March 2007, to assist in meeting the Scheme’s principal objective of reducing the number of people killed or injured on Highland roads;
(ii) the Committee notes that the NSCP met its financial targets for 2005/06, and that all Council costs were reimbursed through the scheme;
(iii) the Committee notes that the NSCP expects to meet its financial targets for 2006/07, and that all costs incurred by the Council will be reimbursed through the scheme;
(iv) the Director of Corporate Services writes to the Minister requesting that consideration be given to amending the scheme in Scotland, to allow road safety measures to be funded from the income received from camera enforcement;
(v) a further report be submitted to the Resources Committee in February 2007, to update Members on progress.

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If I'm reading this right the committee could vote the local camera partnership out of existence. Now that WOULD be interesting.

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

Hi Seems to say a lot about meeting FINANCIAL targets.
What was the safety target ?

Richard

Safe Speed issued the following 'local' PR at 07:42 this morning:

PRL104: Crucial Inverness Speed Camera Vote on Wednesday

news: for immediate release

On Wednesday, Members of the Highland Council Resources Committee will vote in
Inverness on whether to continue to support the so-called Northern Safety
Camera Partnership for another year.

The camera partnership are responsible for the camera vans seen all too
frequently around the Highlands, but the camera partnership cannot exist
without council support.

Paul Smith, founder of the Safe Speed road safety campaign
(www.safespeed.org.uk) said: "If the councilors knew just half of what I know
about the overall effects of speed cameras on road safety they would
gleefully, swiftly and certainly vote to end support for the partnership."

"The problem is", explained Paul, "that speed cameras come with side effects.
It turns out that these side effects are deadly. The road safety establishment
has not studied the side effects but I have, and what I've found scares the
life out of me. The scheme and the cameras are well intentioned but they are
paving the road to hell."

"One of the great mistakes is to confuse safe behaviours and legal behaviours.
Most drivers are very good at selecting a safe and appropriate speed according
to the road conditions - a process that doesn't even require a speedometer,
yet road safety based on speed cameras seeks to replace this vital safe
behaviour with behaviour that is merely legal."

"Another mistake is to misunderstand crash causation. A joyrider crashing in
town at 90mph is clearly extremely dangerous and gets a 'check' in the
'excessive speed crash' box. Many high severity crashes loosely fit this model
where reckless behaviour results in BOTH high speeds and serious crashes. But
it should be obvious that a speed camera on the bypass won't prevent them.
Even so crashes such as this are ALWAYS used to support the case for speed
cameras."

"UK road safety has been the best in the world - but now we're fast losing our
world lead. Well of course we are. Speed cameras and supporting policy have
changed many of the things that made our road safety the best."

"I urge councilors to vote against the proposal to continue the camera
partnership because it is ineffective, misguided, expensive, based on false
and misunderstood data, criminalises responsible drivers and especially
because it is highly dangerous to road safety."

"This is a real opportunity for Highland Region to take a national lead and
attract valuable publicity - it's never been done before and would make
national headlines."

<ends>


Notes for editors
=================

Supporting 800 word article:
http://www.safespeed.org.uk/prl104.doc
Permission is granted to use this article freely in any print, electronic or
broadcast media before 20th February 2006. After that date contact the office.

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