The Government is making major changes in the way that speed cameras are managed and financed, in a bid to scotch the 'cash for cameras' tag. However, the reaction from motoring groups was lukewarm, saying that it was too little, too late.
The main reform removes the profit incentive from the speed camera partnerships by ensuring that their funding comes instead directly from the Department of Transport. The aim is clear: the authorities want to dispel the perception that speed cameras are there to generate profit rather than improve road safety. However, from a motorist's point of view, the result of being flashed by a working speed camera remains the same.
According to a report in The Times, the key reforms are:
- Cash for cameras scheme ends
- DfT wants fewer speeding tickets issued
- Cameras to be installed only as 'a last resort'
- Camera officials must work closely with Police and highways authority
- Digital only cameras in motorway road works (SPECS)
The Government also said it wants camera partnerships to emulate Lincolnshire, where road casualties have fallen and fewer tickets have been issued. What's more, Lincolnshire said that it needs no more cameras, unlike most other partnerships, which make annual applications to erect more.
Ministers said they approved of the Lincolnshire partnership's policy of having camera officials working alongside police road safety officers and council highway engineers.
"If all partnerships were made to work together in this way they would think much more carefully about the alternatives to cameras. We need to have a better deal with motorists to convince them that cameras are not about making money", said a spokesman.
However, the department is also planning to give partnerships greater flexibility to use cameras where there is a speeding problem but no recent history of crashes. Roads beside schools will be given priority.
The Association of British Drivers came up with five reasons why the reforms will make little difference. It said that the plan:
- Leaves unaccountable and secretive camera partnerships intact
- Allows the continued use of cameras
- Diverts some camera funds for more road markings and signs
- Retains the focus on speed limits, not appropriate speed for the conditions
"We're pleased that the government has finally admitted that cameras are about cash, not saving casualties," said ABD spokesman Mark McArthur-Christie, "but cameras will still be used, and still be funded from fines."
The DfT said that speed cameras save lives and that it will soon publish a report to bolster its claim. DfT's plan will also remove the current restriction allowing cameras only on roads with a proven accident history. Instead, cameras will soon be placed anywhere designated as an area of "community concern."
Paul Smith, founder of the Safe Speed road safety campaign, said: "The DfT appears to be moving in the right direction, but it is far too little and far too late. TRL595 proved that fixed cameras were dangerous in motorway road works, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. Speed cameras do not make our roads safer and never will. They are a dangerous distraction and must be scrapped. They are founded only on bad science, faulty logic, commercial interest and oversimplified thinking. We will not be able to restore road safety trends until the DfT finally wakes up to road safety reality.
"After 12 years of speed cameras there is still absolutely no scientific evidence to show that they have an overall beneficial effect on road safety. This is hardly surprising, because they make road safety worse.
"Safe Speed's tireless work, pointing out gross flaws in the figures and the assumptions, is really making a difference. No other road safety organisation is focused on the principles that gave us the safest roads in the world in the first place."
Smith said that this year has seen a series of 'interesting' events in the camera programme:
- Partnership staffing freeze
- Camera report severely delayed
- Freeze on camera sites
- Chief Police Officer Richard Brunstrom quits his ACPO (association of Chief Police Officers) roads policing job
- Hypothecation scrapped