It seems it could soon be a camera on every corner,
http://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/searc...arch&archive=0
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Police chiefs are to be given more flexibility to put speed cameras by roads, even if statistics do not indicate they are dangerous.
The Department for Transport is considering relaxing the rules over where the devices can be installed, after police chiefs said many fatal crashes would be prevented if they had more of a say over the location of cameras.
Under current rules, a fixed camera can be installed only if at least four collisions per kilometre involving death or injury have happened in the past three years. For mobile cameras, it is two collisions. Police must also prove that at least 20 per cent of drivers are breaking the limit.
The news has attracted a mixed reaction in Norfolk, where last year former Chief Constable Andy Hayman and the county council commissioned a report into the cameras following claims they were not all necessary. The report vindicated their existence, despite claims they were merely money-making machines for the police.
Mark Veljovic, chairman of the Norfolk Casualty Reduction Partnership, said today: "We welcome the Department for Transport reviewing the current climate. We want to make sure all our resources, not just speed cameras, are deployed in the areas where we can reduce casualties."
A spokeswoman for road safety charity Brake said: "We would be in favour of a relaxation in the rules. At present you cannot have speed cameras outside schools, unless all the criteria are met. In dangerous areas we would like to see the speed limit enforced."
But Captain Gatso, spokesman for anti-camera group Motorists Against Detection, said: "It's all to do with the money. Last year the Chancellor of the Exchequer had a multi-million-pound clear profit from speed revenues.
"We are not opposed to speed cameras as such, when they are placed outside schools, in high streets and pedestrian areas, but we are when they are on trunk and main roads."
Paul Smith, founder of the Safe Speed road safety campaign, said: "The police have had 10 years to get road deaths down with their infernal speed cameras. It hasn't worked ††more than two million fines per year; traffic speeds are largely unchanged and road deaths are rising. Now they want to fiddle around with the placement rules and install more speed cameras.
"Speed cameras don't make the roads safer ††quite the opposite ††and the last thing we need is more.
"The loss of confidence in the police and in official road safety messages is critical. The only way to restore confidence is to scrap the cameras and, while we're at it, let's scrap those responsible as well."
There are currently 18 fixed camera sites and 72 mobile sites in Norfolk.
Police have limited discretion to deploy cameras in areas pinpointed as danger spots by the public, which do not meet all the criteria. But these sites can only be covered for 15 per cent of the total time cameras are used.
A spokesman for the Department for Transport said: "The review will look at all the criteria for camera sites, including the number of cars exceeding the limit, the distance over which the casualties happen and the level and severity of injuries. Some they might want to leave unchanged and some they might want to change."
Any changes would come into force in April next year.
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