Council mulls scrapping speed camera funding

A local council is considering scrapping its funding for speed cameras and spending the money on other traffic-calming measures instead.

Roderick Bluh, leader of Conservative-run Swindon Borough Council in Wiltshire, told BBC radio that a decision would be made in September on how best to spend the 400,000 pound annual cost of the cameras.

"We believe it may be possible that the money could be spent more effectively on permanent road-calming measures and flashing signs rather than . speed cameras," Bluh said.

Local authorities can no longer keep the money raised by speed camera fines and must send it all to the Treasury.

"We don't get the revenue that comes from the fines to invest in road schemes and therefore this may be a way of us investing more money in our road-calming measures locally," Bluh added.

Councillor Peter Greenhalgh, in charge of transport policy, told newspapers that speed cameras were "a blatant tax on the motorist".

Nearly 30,000 drivers in Wiltshire were sent speeding tickets last year, raising 1.76 million pounds in fines, including 250,000 pounds from Swindon, the Daily Mail reported.

The Wiltshire and Swindon Safety Camera Partnership, which operates the cameras, says they have reduced deaths on the roads where they are sited by two thirds over three years.