A new study has revealed what many motorists always suspected - that speed cameras have been used as little more than 'cash cows' for police forces and safety camera partnerships.
A Home Office report says that the number of speed camera tickets issued to the public has dropped off significantly since police were stopped from holding onto part of the revenue from speed cameras.
Safety camera partnerships (joint ventures between police and local councils) were prevented from keeping any money from camera-generated revenues in 2007, whereupon the number of camera tickets issued plummeted immediately from 1.63million in 2006 to 1.26million in 2007. Tickets issued then dropped to just 1.03million in 2008 - the lowest level since 2001.
Critics also call into question the validity of the speed camera concept."You should never measure safe driving by miles per hour," Claire Armstrong, cofounder of the Safe Speed campaign group told the Daily Mail. "It is not going to be improved just by sticking up a few cameras and taking police off the roads and it does nothing for the relationship between the public and the police."
Jennifer Dunn, policy analyst at the TaxPayers' Alliance, also told the Mail: "Motorists have paid a fortune in speeding fines over the last decade and there is no real sign that the system has succeeded in changing people's behaviour."
But the number of 'scameras' is still steadily growing. In 2000, there were 1935 speed cameras in the UK; today there are approximately 6000.
And it shows no sign of stopping. Trials are currently underway of a new average-speed system called 'SpeedSpike', which combines GPS with numberplate recognition technology. It also records images of both vehicles and drivers.
"We have an urban test site at Salter Road in Southwark and are working in conjunction with the Metropolitan Police," Says SpeedSpike's makers, PIPS Technology. "We also have an inter-urban test site located on the A374 from Torpoint to Antony at which we are working with the Devon and Cornwall Constabulary."
The technology is not currently Home Office approved, so is not as yet being used for enforcement. There's no word on when the new cameras will actually come into force.