Car Active eSafety: Britain’s most senior traffic policeman is at war with the Government over road safety

Monday, August 9, 2010

Britain’s most senior traffic policeman is at war with the Government over road safety

Crabsallover notes the decision to terminate speed cameras in Oxford and is concerned about the possible reduction of use of speed cameras in Dorset. Do speed cameras save lives? What is the evidence?

Philip Pank Last updated August 9 2010 12:01AM source: The Times

Britain’s most senior traffic policeman is at war with the Government over road safety, claiming that a decision to cut funding for speed cameras will put lives at risk. In letters seen by The Times, Chief Constable Mick Giannasi has warned ministers of a rise in fatal road accidents as councils switch off speed cameras because they can no longer afford to operate them.

Mr Giannasi estimates that four out of five cameras will be obsolete within five years, adding that redundancies in back offices mean that enforcement is already being curtailed.

The Government has cut £38 million from this year’s road safety budget.

Mr Giannasi, the chief constable of Gwent Police, heads the roads portfolio for the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO). He said that the

Government’s decision to cut 40 per cent of the road safety grant paid to local authorities, coupled with a pledge not to fund new fixed cameras, had provoked “unintended consequences for road safety” as councils take cameras out of service.

“We have invested heavily in infrastructure. There is a danger that it is dwindling away. I think a vacuum has been created and people are reacting to that inappropriately,” he told The Times. “If nothing is put in place, speeds will rise and casualties will grow.” Driving standards will deteriorate, child road safety programmes will be hit and the education of offenders will cease, Mr Giannasi said.

The Treasury would also lose a “significant” revenue stream. Mr Giannasi has written two letters to Mike Penning, the road safety minister, setting out his concerns. In one he writes: “If this unacceptable situation is to be avoided, immediate action is essential . . . I cannot overstate the urgency of this situation and the potential damage that will be the consequence of inaction.”

Mr Giannasi insists there is no rift with the Government but he told The Times: “I think it is appropriate for me to say I am disappointed with the level of leadership.” In his reply, Mr Penning assured the police that “there is an important role for safety camera enforcement”.

In his first day in office, Philip Hammond, the Secretary of State for Transport, proclaimed “the end of the war on motorists” and promised to make good on a manifesto pledge to pull the plug on funds for new cameras. Oxfordshire became the first council to turn off its speed cameras last week, but a slew of other counties are contemplating similar moves. Northamptonshire has taken some cameras out of operation, Somerset plans to do the same, while at least three others — Buckinghamshire, Derbyshire and Wiltshire — have plans to pare back their networks. Devon and Cornwall are considering an end to speed cameras while Dorset and Norfolk are among regions to have put their cameras under review.

Road safety campaigners and motoring organisations insist that speed cameras slow traffic and save lives.

The first speed cameras were trialled in Britain in 1992. A law passed in 1999 allowed local authorities to use the devices. Road deaths fell to a record low of 2,222 last year.

The cameras’ demise would signal “the return to the racetrack” for some drivers, according to one expert. Richard Allsop, professor of transport studies at University College London and a trustee of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS), said: “The concerns are real, PACTS shares these concerns, and we support ACPO in drawing the new minister’s attention to the unintended consequences that could be severe if urgent thought is not given to avoiding them.” Professor Allsop said it would be “extremely serious” if the Government had not drafted a new road safety strategy by Christmas.

“If you let up, it will go into reverse,” Professor Allsop said, citing the Netherlands, which relaxed road safety programmes in the early 1990s, only to suffer a rise in road deaths.

Since the development of the first fixed Gatso (brand of speed camera) speed cameras in the Netherlands, they have been installed across continental Europe. Their proliferation over the past decade reflects a consensus that the cameras are effective at slowing traffic and reducing road deaths. There is no sign yet of other countries following Britain’s lead in cutting back on the devices. On the contrary, some campaigners are pressing for a change in international law to allow drivers caught speeding abroad to face prosecution in their home countries. At present, automated speed camera fines cannot follow you home.

More than 6,000 speed cameras in Britain raise about £100 million each year. Money collected through £60 speeding fines goes to the Treasury, which in turn provides grants to local authorities. The Department for Transport leaves councils to set their own spending priorities.