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Swindon council votes to remove speed cameras
Swindon has become the first local council to vote to get rid of fixed-point speed cameras, arguing they are not preventing road deaths.
- Reuters
- Published: 23:55 October 23, 2008
London: Swindon has become the first local council to vote to get rid of fixed-point speed cameras, arguing they are not preventing road deaths.
The Conservative-led borough council voted on Wednesday night to withdraw from the Wiltshire and Swindon Safety Camera Partnership and said it would spend the money on other traffic-calming measures instead.
At the moment, the council pays £320,000 (Dh1.93 million) for the upkeep of the cameras but the fines go to the government.
Councillor Peter Greenhalgh, in charge of the council's transport policy, said cameras are effective in catching speeding drivers but do not stop people speeding. He said what is needed is an improvement in education.
"At the moment the way that we are dealing with road safety is not delivering the results we want," he told BBC radio.
"We have a moral obligation to do whatever we can to reduce the number of people who are being injured or killed on the roads and we have to refocus our investment on actually delivering the results we want."
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