Norfolk Scammers.......What Profit?
Discussion
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£1.35m: but no big profit for speed cams
19 March 2005 07:51
Speeding motorists in the region have clocked up an estimated £1.35m in fines in the past year - but it cost almost that much to run the camera partnership.
Bosses of the Norfolk Casualty Reduction Partnership (NCRP) insisted last night that the forecasted figures highlighted that the cameras were not there to make a profit and the number of fatalities and serious injury collisions at cameras locations had fallen by 50pc in the past 12 months.
Despite fines collected totalling an estimated £1,350,960, the surplus that would be kept by the Treasury could be as little as £15,000.
A internal financial report sent to the NCRP on February 28 indicated that fines for the last year would total £1,350,960 - £85,960 more than predicted.
Expenditure was estimated at £1,221,139 - £70,049 more than had been projected - giving a surplus of £129,821.
But the document, which is published in the agenda of a forthcoming meeting of the Joint Casualty Reduction Group, puts the forecasted end of year surplus in the vicinity of £15,000 to £25,000.
Bryan Edwards, spokesman for the NCRP, said he could not comment on the report until the appropriate authorities had discussed it and stressed that the figures were estimated.
However, he said it was crucial for the public to understand how the partnership was funded and the fact that any money made in fines went straight back to central Government.
One fatal accident in Norfolk cost around £1.3m and one person receiving a serious injury meant a cost of £100,000 to the local health authority.
"This whole operation has a nil cost to the police authority, county council and the rate-payers and if there are no funds coming in we cannot operate," said Mr Edwards.
"We have civilian police staff operating the camera vans so the work we are doing is freeing up the police service to get on with crime and operational patrol, which is what the public want."
He added: "The more revenue that comes in, the more it means that we are failing to get our message across about reducing speed."
Spokesman for the Association of British Motorists Nigel Humphries said dangerous driving and not speeding needed to be the focus of police and called for a more sensible speed limits.
Speed cameras only alienated motorists and they were not having the effect on casualty reduction that partnerships claimed.
Some were being used where engineering work and other road improvements had been carried out and where an unusual number of collisions had happened over a short period, therefore guaranteeing a reduction.
Commenting on the fines given out by Norfolk's camera partnership, Mr Humphries said: "It is an awful lot of money and virtually none of those speeding motorists will have had any relationship to the accidents they are trying to prevent.
"I don't say they are there to make money, but they are there to achieve financial targets."
£1.35m: but no big profit for speed cams
19 March 2005 07:51
Speeding motorists in the region have clocked up an estimated £1.35m in fines in the past year - but it cost almost that much to run the camera partnership.
Bosses of the Norfolk Casualty Reduction Partnership (NCRP) insisted last night that the forecasted figures highlighted that the cameras were not there to make a profit and the number of fatalities and serious injury collisions at cameras locations had fallen by 50pc in the past 12 months.
Despite fines collected totalling an estimated £1,350,960, the surplus that would be kept by the Treasury could be as little as £15,000.
A internal financial report sent to the NCRP on February 28 indicated that fines for the last year would total £1,350,960 - £85,960 more than predicted.
Expenditure was estimated at £1,221,139 - £70,049 more than had been projected - giving a surplus of £129,821.
But the document, which is published in the agenda of a forthcoming meeting of the Joint Casualty Reduction Group, puts the forecasted end of year surplus in the vicinity of £15,000 to £25,000.
Bryan Edwards, spokesman for the NCRP, said he could not comment on the report until the appropriate authorities had discussed it and stressed that the figures were estimated.
However, he said it was crucial for the public to understand how the partnership was funded and the fact that any money made in fines went straight back to central Government.
One fatal accident in Norfolk cost around £1.3m and one person receiving a serious injury meant a cost of £100,000 to the local health authority.
"This whole operation has a nil cost to the police authority, county council and the rate-payers and if there are no funds coming in we cannot operate," said Mr Edwards.
"We have civilian police staff operating the camera vans so the work we are doing is freeing up the police service to get on with crime and operational patrol, which is what the public want."
He added: "The more revenue that comes in, the more it means that we are failing to get our message across about reducing speed."
Spokesman for the Association of British Motorists Nigel Humphries said dangerous driving and not speeding needed to be the focus of police and called for a more sensible speed limits.
Speed cameras only alienated motorists and they were not having the effect on casualty reduction that partnerships claimed.
Some were being used where engineering work and other road improvements had been carried out and where an unusual number of collisions had happened over a short period, therefore guaranteeing a reduction.
Commenting on the fines given out by Norfolk's camera partnership, Mr Humphries said: "It is an awful lot of money and virtually none of those speeding motorists will have had any relationship to the accidents they are trying to prevent.
"I don't say they are there to make money, but they are there to achieve financial targets."
catso said:
Bryan Edwards, spokesman for the NCRP, said:
"This whole operation has a nil cost to the police authority, county council and the rate-payers and if there are no funds coming in we cannot operate,"
Well, there it is, from the horses mouth! It is all about money and the privatisation of road policing.
Mind you, he's also given us the answer. Starve the cameras, clog up the roads, and when accidents still don't fall?
P.S. Didn't their accountants do a good job? Of course they didn't make much profit, Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Neither did the mafia!
- Streaky
catso said:
Despite fines collected totalling an estimated £1,350,960, the surplus that would be kept by the Treasury could be as little as £15,000.
FFS, this is schoolboy stuff.
Total fines = £1,350,960
Total expenditure = £1,335,960
So what you get in early March is the guv'nor of the camera office saying, "Sh!t, we've got a couple of hundred grand kicking about chaps, and if we don't get rid of it we'll need to give it to Gordon Brown. Who needs a new computer? Let's also get a couple of new state-of-the-art vans and equipment. Plus, the office is starting to look a bit dowdy, lets get it decorated etc..."
Ask any council buyer if that sounds like a familiar story.
DeMolay said:
So what you get in early March is the guv'nor of the camera office saying, "Sh!t, we've got a couple of hundred grand kicking about chaps, and if we don't get rid of it we'll need to give it to Gordon Brown. Who needs a new computer? Let's also get a couple of new state-of-the-art vans and equipment. Plus, the office is starting to look a bit dowdy, lets get it decorated etc..."
Ask any council buyer if that sounds like a familiar story.
Nope, apparently the expenditure is all booked-up a year in advance, so what you get is the manager saying "Sh!t, we've got this new computer and gold leaf decor to pay for and we are a hundred grand short. I want every van out there 24x7 on the most profitable routes."
Gareth
Peter Ward said:
"...civilian police staff operating the camera vans..."
So that means all tickets are invalid, I think? Anyone done in Norfolk, you have your get-out-of-jail card kindly provided by the camera operator. That will mess their calculations up.
See Dibble and cuneus in: www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=162014&f=10&h=0
See also: www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=146124&f=10&h=0 , www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=130139&f=10&h=0 . The link in Pepipoo points here: http://pepipoo.com/NewForums2/viewtopic.php?t=1883&sid=3097dadb005945ca6b6f3bda0eda4600.
Streaky
>> Edited by streaky on Monday 21st March 07:40
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