Government speed camera shake-up - New focus on speed and speeding

Motoring and safety groups have welcomed a speed camera shake-up and speed limits review announced by transport secretary Alistair Darling today.

The overhaul comes with the publication of a new report which shows how effective cameras have been in reducing speeding and cutting the number of deaths and injuries on UK roads.

Darling said that from 2007 revenue from speeding fines will no longer be given to police Safety Camera Partnerships to invest in new cameras. Instead the cash will go into a new fund, estimated to be worth £110 million, for local council safety schemes.

New rules for the siting of cameras will also be introduced next year. These allow cameras on any road where there is a 'serious problem' of speeding, rather than only at distinct locations as is currently the case.

However, road experts will have to demonstrate a need for cameras by analysing data from accidents involving injuries over a five-, rather than the current three-year timescale.

Signing of cameras will also improve, and speed limit warning signs and cameras should also be sited together where possible.

Darling also said a review of all A- and B-road speed limits would be completed by 2011 to ensure that inappropriately low and excessively high limits were changed to encourage greater respect from motorists.

The results of an independent four-year assessment of cameras by PA Consulting and University College London estimates that as many as 1745 deaths and serious injuries are prevented each year by cameras, or 874 by the most conservative statistical analysis.

It found that the number of motorists breaking speed limits fell by 70% when speed cameras were introduced.