We'll pull the speed cameras (From Swindon Advertiser)

We'll pull the speed cameras

1:09pm Thursday 3rd January 2008 in

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SPEED cameras could be pulled from Swindon's streets, after a Government minister refused to give the council the cash they make.

Road Safety Minister Jim Fitzpatrick wrote to Swindon Council saying he could not hand back cash generated by speed cameras.

So Swindon Council is now poised to pull out of the Wiltshire And Swindon Safety Camera Partnership which runs speed cameras.

"Swindon gets much more back from the scheme than it financially puts in," said Nisha Devani, the manager of the camera partnership.

"So I would like the council to think hard and long about the effects of this.

"My great fear is that councillors will not be making an informed decision unless they came and talk to us and see the evidence.

"Swindon leaving would also be a distinct blow to the partnership."

In April the Government changed the rules on where cash from speed cameras went and began pooling it in a central pot.

It then allocates cash to councils to spend on road safety.

Most councils, including Swindon and Wiltshire County Council, put that cash into funding speed camera partnerships.

But in November Coun Andy James (Con, Dorcan) branded the cameras a stealth tax and hatched a plan to demand the Government returns all the cash from Swindon cameras to Swindon Council.

And, he said, if the Government did not agree the council would pull out of the camera partnership.

During debate on the scheme Coun James said that the plan may not mean an end to cameras in Swindon - just that the council may run them instead.

But for the council to run a camera scheme it would need to spend millions on equipment, get permission from Wiltshire Police's Chief Constable to run a scheme and teach staff how to operate it.

In spite of that, Coun James said the council's stance was unchanged.

"We should now begin planning how to exit the partnership," he said.

"We didn't make the motion for nothing and just because we have had an answer we don't like, we can't not do what we agreed."

South Swindon MP Anne Snelgrove said: "Pulling out of the partnership would be a big mistake.

"Some people feel speed cameras are being used to generate revenues.

"That is why the Government changed the system in April, so that there was no link between what a camera raises and what a council gets.

"I hope the councillors will consider this very, very carefully."