PACTS dismisses Tory plan to stem speed camera use

08 October 2009

Proposals unveiled by the Conservatives to stem the expansion of fixed-speed cameras would make little difference to current arrangements, according to the Government’s road safety advisers.

Shadow transport secretary, Theresa Villiers, announced this week that a Tory Government would not fund any more fixed-speed cameras. She said local authorities would only be able to implement more cameras if they proved that nothing else worked better, and they provided the funding. ‘Electing a Conservative Government would signal the end of the relentless expansion of fixed-speed cameras. It’s time to say “enough is enough”,’ she said.

But Robert Gifford, executive director of the Parliamentary Advisory Committee on Transport Safety (PACTS), said highways authorities already had to look into alternatives and follow guidelines before implementing speed cameras, even though the road safety grant since 2007 afforded more flexibility than previously.

A number of road safety partnerships, such as the Thames Valley Safer Roads Partnership and the Lincolnshire Road Safety Partnership, have moved away from speed cameras towards softer approaches.

Regarding funding, question marks remain over the future of the annual £110m road safety grant, which is up for renewal in 2011. Mr Gifford said the grant was unlikely to be renewed, meaning councils would have to fund speed cameras themselves anyway. ‘It’s a combination of what is already being delivered and the undeliverable,’ he added. But a spokesman for the Conservative Party said ‘things would remain as they stand’.

He told Surveyor: ‘Our announcement did not have an impact on the level of the road safety grant.’ A Department for Transport spokesman said a decision would be made on continuing the grant ‘in due course’.

Speaking at the Conservative party conference, Ms Villiers said speed cameras would be exposed to ‘real democratic control’, meaning information on each camera’s record on safety would be published so local communities could judge for themselves whether they should stay or go. But the police had warned ‘they are not going to be told what to do,’ Mr Gifford said.

Norman Baker, transport spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, said: ‘Ms Villiers seems to be saying road safety is being downgraded. The Tories are giving a nod and a wink to speeding motorists.’

The shadow transport secretary also insisted the Tories would free up highways authorities ‘to innovate and try out new ways to make traffic flow more smoothly’. ‘They’ll get encouragement from Whitehall, not the stonewalling and inflexibility for which Labour’s Department for Transport is notorious.’ She pledged to target the ‘epidemic of new traffic lights’ by forcing those in charge to publish clear criteria, based on evidence, to determine where traffic lights go and how they’re timed.

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