The absurdity of speed camera cuts

By Diana Smith

My own relationship with speed cameras is one of grudging respect.

After years of more or less ignoring them and driving at the speed my mood dictated, I was finally picked up by one, got sent on a speed reduction course, and have driven with rather more attention (most of the time) since then. So I would say that speed cameras, along with the very effective courses that Staffordshire County Council have been running together add up to safer roads and better driving.

The idea of getting rid of speed cameras was therefore rather a puzzle to me. I assumed that it was either the Conservatives bowing to the wishes of the Jeremy Clarkson lobby, or the Liberal Democrats bowing to the wishes of the civil liberties lobby.

It turns out to be nothing of the sort. It’s all about accounting. This interview on Radio 4 is remarkable because it demonstrates very clearly the complete illogicality of cutting cameras, as a cost saving measure, when they are actually making money, and because of the barely suppressed fury in the voice of the Oxford Councillor who is being put in such an invidious position.

The position is this. The Local Authorities have funded cameras with the help of a grant from central government. The speeding fines go into the central government coffers. The cameras produce money for the government. The government are now, as a part of their budget cuts, cutting the grant to the local authorities. So the cameras go, revenue falls, and lives will be lost.

My husband came up with a solution to all this – we will need little groups of pensioners standing at corners with surveillance cameras – that’s the big society for you.

This is absurd, and there will be plenty more where this comes from. It is this government that needs to cut its speed, and pay a little more attention to the detail.