8:30am Tuesday 18th November 2008
By Matt Smith
SPEED cameras in Southampton could become a casualty of Tory budget cuts.
Transport chiefs in the city want to halve their contribution to the group which manages and maintains the mobile and ten fixed cameras in the city.
The proposal would leave a £163,000 hole in the Hampshire speed camera partnership’s £2.4m budget.
Tory Cabinet member for transport Councillor Matt Dean, who is waiting to hear back from camera chiefs, said: “It’s going to result in a reduction in the number of cameras in all probability.”
The cuts are one of a number of proposals to plug an estimated £13m deficit in next year’s £184m council budget.
A consultation document recognised the partnership had “delivered improvements in casualty reduction”, but added it was felt “this level of safety could be maintained by the council with a reduced contribution to this partnership”.
Cllr Dean said cameras “had their place” as a way to reduce casualties, although some may need to be re-sited, and he was not following Swindon council in scrapping them.
But he said he was keen for the partnership to make more use of driver awareness courses offered for £74 to motorists caught speeding.
He said: “Police could move to fewer cameras overall. Or fewer fixed cameras and more mobile enforcement.
“And ultimately if they don’t make the back office savings and have policies that reflect an increase in driver training that could be the end of the partnership.”
He insisted: “The time has come for value for money.”
Hampshire Safer Roads Partnership said in a statement: “It would be inappropriate to make a comment at this stage because partnership funding for next year is still under discussion.”
The partnership insisted its work had resulted in a “significant reduction” in casualties.
It said: “At our camera locations in Southampton, there has been a reduction of 25 per cent in collisions and 46 per cent in collisions resulting in people being killed or seriously injured between April 2005 to March 2008 compared to baseline figures.”
Until last year speed camera partnerships – made up of councils, police and road safety groups – kept the income from cameras.
After criticism, the Government decided that cash generated from the cameras would go directly to the Treasury in return for road safety grants to councils on the basis of accident statistics. Last year the grants totalled £110m.
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