Road safety cuts send out wrong message over use of speed cameras – The Yorkshire Post says

They don’t. Their primary purpose is to reduce the risk of accidents at known blackspots and countless lives have been saved as a result of their deployment.

Why this Yorkshire police force’s speed camera obsession must end – Yorkshire Post Letters

However the proposal by North Yorkshire County Council to cut its road safety team from six to one will dismay those drivers, and taxpayers, who are sceptical about the motives underpinning the use of cameras.

Speed camera reliance in Yorkshire at expense of drink-driving and other motoring offences – Yorkshire Post Letters

Despite the Tory-controlled council saying that it will still offer cycle training for children in areas “where there are road safety issues”, the cuts have been condemned by the area’s outgoing crime commissioner Julia Mulligan, herself a Conservative politician.

Like many residents, she is concerned at the scaling back of those local campaigns, and initiatives, which are essential elements of any comprehensive and credible road safety strategy.

At a time when the number of fatalities on North Yorkshire’s roads is increasing, and police patrols declining, it is even more important that the county takes a proactive approach to minimise future deaths, educate all vehicle users, including motorcyclists, and to help to enforce the law.

For, while NYCC says that it does monitor casualty figures over a three-year period, this move effectively leaves one official responsible for 5,350 miles of roads – the equivalent of a road journey from Britain to India. And when it is put in this context, it’s even more reason for the council to think again – or ‘think twice’ to paraphrase past road safety campaigns – while also lobbying the Government to make sure rural areas receive fairer funding in the future.