Half of Britain’s speed cameras are switched off
Written by News on 05/11/2017
Only about half of fixed speed cameras in Britain are actually switched on, police figures show.
Data released by 36 out of a total 45 police forces, responding to a Freedom of Information request by the Press Association, show only 1,486 (52%) out of 2,838 cameras are actively catching speeding drivers.
Four forces – Cleveland, Durham, North Yorkshire and Northamptonshire – have no fixed speed cameras in use at all.
Staffordshire Police have 272 fixed cameras but just 14 of them are active, while the Derbyshire force operate 112 cameras with just 10 of them switched on.
West Yorkshire, Kent, South Yorkshire, Greater Manchester and Cheshire have a quarter or less active.
City of London, the Metropolitan Police/Transport for London, Lancashire, Nottinghamshire, Suffolk and Northern Ireland said all their fixed cameras are in operation.
West Midlands Police, who announced in 2013 that their old speed cameras were being switched off, said they now had eight new average speed cameras.
The figures cover all police fixed speed cameras, but not the mobile devices forces also use.
All the forces that responded said they deployed regular mobile speed cameras across their areas. They also said they regularly review which fixed cameras are turned on.
Road safety charity Brake described the figures as concerning and called for all cameras to be switched on.
Its director of campaigns, Jason Wakeford, said: "A staggering 1,800 people lost their lives on British roads last year and speeding is a factor in thousands of crashes.
"Speed cameras are a proven, cost-effective way of reducing deadly collisions and so it’s critical they are operational."
AA president Edmund King put the high number of inactive cameras down to pressure on budgets and warned drivers against taking a gamble.
"Drivers who play Russian roulette with fixed-site speed cameras are playing a dangerous game. Our advice is stick to the limits rather than gambling on the yellow boxes," he said.
A spokeswoman for the National Police Chiefs’ Council said the decision to use cameras was "an operational matter", adding that "all forces have individual responsibility for their use of speed cameras".
(c) Sky News 2017: Half of Britain’s speed cameras are switched off
