Speed camera stats to be released
Added on Thursday, December 30th, 2010 by Carole Nash Editor | No Comments
Speed camera stats to be released
Road safety partnerships could be forced to publish statistics on their most “profitable” speed cameras under new plans proposed the government.
The plan, which is designed to give taxpayers greater transparency over how their money is spent, could see local authorities forced to publically reveal details of accident rates at camera sites, car speeds and the numbers of prosecutions or warnings given as a result of cameras being published by local authorities and police forces.
At present, camera data is not routinely published by camera partnerships but under the new scheme, regular statistics could be available from April 2011.
The announcement comes following the Conservative’s pre-election pledge to force camera partnerships to “justify” their use of safety cameras and Roads Safety Minister Mike Penning said public bodies had to be “accountable” about the use of taxpayers’ money.
“The proposals I have announced today will help show what impact cameras are having on accident and casualty rates and also how the police are dealing with offenders.
“This is in line with our commitment to improve transparency of government data so that the public are able to make more informed judgements about the work of local and central government.”
The announcement comes after a number of authorities have decided to cut back or even cancel their safety camera programmes due to budget cuts. In July, cameras in Oxfordshire were switched off after the county council withdrew £600,000 in funding due to budget cuts. Wiltshire and Swindon Safety Camera Partnership has also been disbanded because of cuts.
But the AA has warned that lives could be risked if more local authorities scrap speed cameras – after the government cut central funding for speed cameras and reduced the road safety budget by £38m.
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