London spends big on scameras

£4.3 million to go on cameras and advertising

By PH Staff / Wednesday, 5 April 2006 / Loading comments

More cameras on the way

Autocar Magazine today reveals extraordinary spending on speed cameras in London. Reports suggest that 66 new digital cameras are going in at £50,000 each for a total of £3.3 million, and £1 million is rapidly being spent on a massive advertising campaign.

Coming as it does in the last month of financial year 2005/6, this extraordinary £4.3 million spend will anger those who are serious about road safety, said road safety campaign Safe Speed.

Campaign founder Paul Smith said that larger issues are raised about control of expenditure in the forthcoming last year of the 'greed charter' - the scheme whereby speed camera fines pay for more speed cameras in what would have become a never ending spiral of motorist persecution.

Before the end of the netting-off scheme in April 2007, speed cameras will have generated more than £1 billion in fines issued to in excess of 15 million motorists. (Safe Speed calculated figures based on Home Office data, extrapolated to April 2007.)

Smith said: "The simple fact is that money spent on speed cameras is wasted - they don't make the roads safer. They bring misery and distraction to drivers. But worse than that are the false safety messages implied by speed camera publicity. These undermine the true core values of road safety - skills, attitudes and responsibilities."

"We will not be able to get road safety back on track while a single speed camera remains on our roads."