A town is planning to scrap 'cash cow' speed cameras because they are a 'blatant tax on the motorist'.The move by Swindon Borough Council would make it the first in the UK to ditch the devices.

Town hall bosses say the £60 speeding penalty fine is 'snatched' by the Treasury and the council does not receive a penny.

Many of the town's speed cameras are not in use because the council believes it should receive the revenue, not the Government.

Town hall bosses scrap 'cash cow' speed cameras | Mail Online

More councils expected to ban speed cameras | Politics | guardian.co.uk

I've been listening to this on Radio 2 today and got to admit this is a good idea, more education on speed seems a good idea compared to say 3 points and a £60 fine, because everyone on here must admit we go over the speed limit every now and again and flash flash goes the camera and thats our license tarnished.

But how will MPs fund their second home and furnishings now.

I think what their were saying on Radio 2 is that if say the ambulance service, police or fire brigade still want to fund it they can, but the council are not wanting to fund it.

To quote one person on radio 2 today

"The ony speed Camera is the brain of the person driving the car"

How true is this?

Thats a good quote and very true.

everyone on here must admit we go over the speed limit every now and again and flash flash goes the camera and thats our license tarnished.

If, however, you can't spot the big yellow camera stood by the side of the road it doesn't say much for your observation regardless of how fast you're going.

Given that people are usually smaller, less yellow and prone to movement, if you can't spot the camera in time to brake enough to be within the limit when you pass it, I doubt very much that you'd be able to stop in time to avoid hitting a pedestrian in the road...

Not saying that speed cameras are a good/bad thing, just if you get caught by one then I personally would see it as reflecting quite badly on your driving rather than just as a casual misdemeanour!

Rob.

Be warned though if you come to Swindon the nice yellow camera on Queens drive IS still working

Edited 23 October, 200817 yr by Octygone

I suspect it may be burned out soon, lol. Not that that's a good or correct thing to do of course.

Councils wont give up on this easy revenue stream.

According to the article the councils have to pay for the service, and they get nothing out of it as fines go straight to treasury - hence Swindon council's decision to spend the money a bit more wisely.

they no doubt make their money out of the cameras by selling them to other greedy partnerships. i personally see it going the way like iirc durham where there is no fixed cameras in the county just coppers going round with lti 20/20's

The problem as I see it is that politicians and the like believe you can police the roads with a few speed cameras. While I agree that there are certain blackspots etc that would benefit from having a camera installed.

However most cameras are sited purely to extract money from the motorist and add no safety value to the area. Most of the time you see drivers speed along, slow down for the camera, then speed up again. If you really want to keep speeds down over a length of road then speed average cameras are the answer.

Speed cameras do not detect: tailgating, driving while using a hand held phone, weaving in traffic, overtaking on solid white lines etc etc.

In yesterdays discussions on the Swindon issue it was stated that only 6% of accidents were caused by excessive speed.

What would the goverment do if everybody drove within the speed limit for a month and no speeding tickets were issued?

If speed cameras weren't just cash cows, they would place them outside schools instead of speed bumps.

That raises the question of who decides on the speed limits on our roads. The main road near me was down graded from unresticted (60mph) to 30 mph a few years ago. At the same time the road that passes the secondary School was only reduced to a 40 mph limit. Then there is a small narrow country lane off of that road which is unrestricted, which basically means you could drive along at 60 mph, because the road is narrow and twisty with high hedges you have to drive at about 20 -25 mph.:confused:

Is it not the council that decide on the change of speed limits on road, the road near to my house used to be a sixty but now down to a 30 and 40mph speed limits the moment they stuck a bus route on it and further up they stuck speedbumps in just where the village started.

Then there is a small narrow country lane off of that road which is unrestricted, which basically means you could drive along at 60 mph.

Actually, no. If you did drive along there at 60 and were lucky enough to avoid having an accident, you could still be prosecuted for driving carelessly or dangerously since 60 would be inappropriate for that road. The NFL isn't a licence to drive anywhere at 60 or 70 regardless of the conditions.

But I think you know that...

That was my point, why restict certain roads that used to be 60 mph and not restrict narrow lanes where it is totally unsafe to drive above 30 mph. Where I used to work the main road in front of the factory was a 60 mph. The factory entrance was on a brow with double white lines followed by 2 car park entrances within 100 yds. Despite waring signs 'slow down factory entrance' etc over the years there had been some serious accidents and at least 4 fatalities. The company asked the council to restrict the road outside the factory to 30 mph. The council wouldn't do this because it was a main route.

A few years ago the company put in for planning permission and the council made them build an offset rounderbout to slow the traffic down as It is a dangerous piece of road.

I understand what you are saying moley, but as for putting speed limits on every country lane according to its maximum 'safe' speed, wouldn't that be excessive?

Having passed the driving test we should all be knowledgeable enough to judge the correct speeds for each road and responsible enough to keep to them. If drivers can't be trusted to do that then there's a good case for putting speed cameras everywhere!

There are some nice NSL single track roads around Sarat, Flaunden, Chesham if you like to be scared silly.

There are some nice NSL single track roads around Sarat, Flaunden, Chesham if you like to be scared silly.

And Nettleden, Gaddesden, Deerleap... Best to drive them at night i find - you can spot oncoming headlights from miles away. Just need some sort of badger scoop.

If speed cameras weren't just cash cows, they would place them outside schools instead of speed bumps.

exactly, ive only ever seen two speed cameras outside schools, after driving much of the country. Oh the school with one on either side of the road was in slough of all places

What happened to the "its not about money" we always hear about? Thought it was down to saving lives? :confused:

What happened to the "its not about money" we always hear about? Thought it was down to saving lives? :confused:

I think Swindon were saying that the death rate has been increasing lately and therefore to bring it down again they need to look at other measures.

Somehow I doubt we'll see the end of speed cameras, but it might make some of the camera partnerships re-evaluate their speed camera locations if councils withdraw their financial support (and given that a number of councils have money stuck in Icelandic bank accounts, I'm sure a lot of them are looking at budget cutbacks).

The benefits of speed cameras have for a long time been overstated, but since we have an anti-motoring government in power they've convienently ignored the evidence

road down to the light house at lizard (and many other roads in cornwall) are nsl but single track roads that will scrape both sides of the car easily. then come into a village where the road widens to enough room for two lorries to run side by side and its down to 30mph. even sinister pointed this out on one of our days out.