10:00am Friday 24th October 2008
SWINDON Council scrutiny committee chairman Kevin Small says councillors will ‘feel the full responsibility’ of the mammoth decision to scrap fixed speed cameras from the town.
Although the unanimous decision by Swindon councillors was made on Wednesday night, the final decision will be made on Monday.
The scrutiny committee will meet at the council’s civic offices to sift through the facts in order to make the final decision about whether to give the proposal the green light or not.
They can then choose to agree to the proposal, send it back to cabinet to be reworked or defer it for further consideration.
Councillor Small, pictured, (Lab, Western) said the committee must closely examine the evidence on both sides of the argument before reaching a decision.
“The responsibility of scrutiny is to make sure the decision that has been made has been made properly, whether the cabinet has taken all the facts into consideration and whether it reflects the needs and benefits the people of Swindon. It is an immensely big decision to make when considering the lives of people in Swindon,” he said.
“The evidence clearly suggests that speed cameras have reduced accidents on our roads.
“Most of us would say they are a necessary evil because, as motorists, we don’t like to see them but they are put there for a very good reason.”
There are more than 6,000 speed cameras in the UK with two million tickets dished out every year.
Coun Small said he realised that the people of Swindon were split over whether or not to remove speed cameras and would be looking to the scrutiny committee to make the right decision.
He added: “I sympathise with those who say we’ll have blood on our hands if it goes through but we must look at the facts.”
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