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HIGHWAY ROBBERY IN HIGHLANDS BY CAMERA
IAIN RAMAGE
09:00 - 16 February 2006
A Mobile speed camera used on Highland roads was branded a "money-making scheme" which serves only to sour relations between drivers and the police by councillors yesterday.
The camera, which operates around 29 accident blackspots, raked in over £200,000 in fines in its first 10 months following its introduction in July 2004.
But despite concerns raised by councillors yesterday, Highland Council approved a continuation of the scheme until at least March 2007.
According to a report to the council's resources committee, the camera is moved around 29 known accident blackspots in an effort to get drivers to stay within the law.
It was launched in the Highlands in July 2004 and is operated by the Northern Safety Camera Partnership.
Up to April 2005, it had raised £202,620 through 3,377 fixed-penalty fines of £60.
Of that amount £186,422 was spent on the scheme and a surplus of £16,198 was returned to the Government.
Neil Gillies, head of roads and community works, told councillors that in 12 months there had been only three accidents at the 29 locations.
Caithness councillor David Flear, who confessed to being caught by the camera on the A9 near Tain, asked: "Do we know if the accidents were speed-related? The report says some of the money is spent on marketing and media. Surely that is something that should be done by the Scottish Executive and not by this group."
Black Isle councillor David Alston said: "We cannot analyse the data for this until it has been in operation for three years."
Nairn councillor Laurie Fraser claimed that driving at just 1mph over the limit triggered the camera and a £60 fine, which he said was unfair and "turns people against the police".
Council vice-convener Michael Foxley questioned the positioning of the camera.
"The spot on the A82 south of the Altsigh Youth Hostel is one of the few safe places to overtake," he said.
"Why put it there? On another spot on Rannoch Moor there is far more danger from herds of deer to drivers rather than speeding, yet nothing is done about that despite years of complaints."
He added: "This is a mechanism to raise money and has little to do with traffic safety. The main cause of accidents on the A82 is people taking risks in inappropriate places."
Paul Smith, founder of the Safe Speed road safety campaign, had urged councillors to cease involvement in the partnership scheme.
He said: "One of the great mistakes is to confuse safe behaviours and legal behaviours.
"Most drivers are 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."
He went on: "It is ineffective, misguided, expensive, based on false and misunderstood data, criminalises responsible drivers and is highly dangerous."
For the camera partnership, a spokeswoman for the executive said: "Evidence from December's Department for Transport report confirms that safety cameras have contributed to a substantial reduction in accidents, including serious accidents, across the UK as a whole.
"This is in line with all previous research which confirms the effectiveness of safety cameras as a means of reducing accidents.
"In terms of the suggestions that cameras are simply there to raise revenue, nothing could be further from the truth.
"Partnerships are funded on a 'cost recovery' basis. They are allowed to recover the costs of safety camera activity from fine income, which funds the work undertaken by safety camera partnerships.
"They are also governed by strict Treasury rules which ensure the only incentive for a partnership to participate in the programme is to reduce casualties."
She added: "The simple advice to those who want to avoid paying a fine, is not to speed. Speed kills and cameras are there to prevent that."
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