Candid cameras

IT certainly makes little sense to the motorist. The introduction of speed cameras, in spite of provoking fierce protests, was hugely beneficial in terms of road safety, or so at least drivers were told. Yet now, when they have become largely accepted and are believed to be saving lives, they are steadily being switched off.

South Yorkshire Safety Camera Partnership is merely the latest to announce the removal of fixed speed cameras and their replacement with warning signs and the offer of speed-awareness courses as an alternative to penalty points.

As usual, the explanation is that this is nothing to do with spending cuts, but merely a considered move towards educating drivers rather than prosecuting them.

It is instructive to note, however, that the money from speeding fines no longer goes to the safety-camera partnerships but into a general Treasury pot. The fees for speed-awareness courses, however, do go back to the partnerships.

A little more transparency and straightforwardness from police forces on their policies towards speeding would be greatly appreciated. So, too – although it might be too much to ask in these straitened times – would a greater police presence on the roads.

Time was when prosecutions of speeding drivers were governed by the sensible observations of seasoned officers who could make expert judgments on the severity of offences and any mitigating factors involved.

The growing number of vehicles on the road with faulty lights, however – and doubtless other dangerous defects – is testament to the way in which traffic police have been replaced by technology which can detect speeding but is of little use in preventing other offences. It is high time this trend was reversed.