12:30pm Tuesday 26th August 2008
A SPEED camera that some politicians feared could be for the chop will soon be back in action.
The camera on Queens Drive has been out of operation for several weeks.
Some had feared it would not be replaced while Swindon Council decided if it would continue backing the speed camera scheme across the town.
But now it has emerged that the camera will go back into action early in September.
“We’re waiting for further confirmation from Swindon Council that the signage on Queens Drive is correct so that our operations there are legally enforceable,” said Sgt Nick Blencowe of the Wiltshire and Swindon Safety Camera Partnership.
“Swindon Council just needs to tell us when that work is done so that we can get going again.”
Questions over the future of the speed camera were raised in July.
At that time South Swindon MP Anne Snelgrove launched her own campaign to save the camera which she feared may have been pulled.
Swindon Council last November backed a plan to withdraw the safety camera partnership’s funding if Government refused to return cash made by the cameras to the borough.
Since then officers and councillors have been deciding the next step.
The matter is expected to be debated at a forthcoming council meeting. But the imminent return of the Queens Drive camera has been welcomed by Labour councillor Derique Montaut (Lab, Western).
“The camera has been out of use for months,” said councillor Derique Montaut (Lab, central).
“But working with the local MP we put pressure on the council to make representations to the road safety partnership, of which they are a member.
“The Labour team of Councillors and MPs will keep pressure on the council to u-turn on its plans to scrap speed cameras in September.”
Uncertainty still hangs over the future of the speed camera at Chiseldon.
The device was burned out and then carted away in May. But since then no camera has taken its place.
Sgt Blencowe said: “There is a question of cost to do with the reconnection of that camera,” he said.
“We have asked Swindon borough council if it will pay that cost but it is waiting until councillors have made a decision about the authority’s future in the camera partnership before they find cash for this.
“We, as a partnership, are more than happy to operate the cameras but only as and when they are legally enforceable.”
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