AN MP has joined the fight to stop drivers using a busy Swindon road as a racetrack.

South Swindon MP Anne Snelgrove has backed residents' calls for the speed cameras in Queens Drive to be reinstated before someone is killed.

And Mrs Snelgrove has called on Swindon Council to resolve its dispute with the Wiltshire And Swindon Safety Camera Partnership, which runs speed cameras in the town.

At present many of the town's speed cameras are out of action because the council believes it should receive the revenue from speeding fines instead of the Government.

Mrs Snelgrove spent much of Friday handing out leaflets with a Hands Off Our Speed Cameras logo emblazoned on them.

The move comes after a campaign by residents on Queens Drive about the dangers of the road.

Residents say that there are no crossings on the road for children attempting to get to the other side and are angry that drivers are using the dual carriageway to drive at speeds of 70mph at night.

George Lewis, a 40-year-old father-of-four, who has lived on Queens Drive for 12 years, says the road is a racetrack for people driving upwards of 70mph after 10pm.

He said: "Many of us have written to the MP about this problem.

"The cameras need to be reinstated, that is the first step, although I am not even sure that will make a difference.

"There is a part of me that thinks the drivers will just slow down for the camera and then speed up again, but we have to do something.

"At the moment our kids don't even have a cross walk let alone people obeying speed limits.

"The people in this neighbourhood have been talking about this issue for more than a decade - at least now someone is doing something about it."

Mrs Snelgrove believes the council is playing politics with people's lives by keeping the cameras bagged up.

She said: "In the school holidays kids from Churchfields and across Swindon will be out and about in the town and we need them to be able to cross the road in safety.

"First of all I want the Queens Drive camera up and running, because I share the concerns of local people that there will be more fatalities there.

"Then I want the council to drop their plans to pull out of the Safety Camera Partnership to make way for a speed camera stealth tax.

"The best speed camera is the one that doesn't raise a penny, just save lives."

However, coun Peter Greenhalgh, the council's cabinet member for transport and planning, says the council's speed camera policy has not changed.

He said: "Speed cameras are a very small part of our overall road safety measures and there are much more important things we as a council should do instead of acting as a law enforcement arm of this Government."

There has been one fatality and 21 injuries on Queens Drive in the last 18 months.