The county’s police force has said that it takes tackling speeding drivers seriously after it was found to be one of four forces to not have fixed speed cameras.

A BBC Panorama investigation which aired on Monday revealed that Wiltshire, alongside North Yorkshire, Durham and Northamptonshire, had no fixed speed cameras.

As previously reported in 2010, speed cameras were shut off across Wiltshire and Swindon, and Wiltshire Police now relies only on handheld cameras and community speed watches.

But responding, the county’s Police and Crime Commissioner Philip Wilkinson said that he and the force take the issue of safer roads “extremely seriously”, following the investigation.

“Our communities want speeding drivers targeted and road safety to be a focus for Wiltshire Police both now, and in the future,” he said.

“But safer roads and fewer accidents can’t be attributed to a simple fix of simply having more officers or fixed speed cameras - drivers know these locations and adapt their driving to suit and police officers can’t be everywhere at all times.

“What we need is intelligence-led targeting of key speeding hotspots, increased visibility of roads policing officers to provide a deterrent to potential speeding drivers and increased resourcing in those areas which help that visibility.

115 community speed watch teams, made up of almost 1,000 volunteers, are used instead of speed cameras to collate intelligence from “auto speed watch cameras and speed indicators and help with the identification of speeding hotspots and persistent speeding offenders”, Wiltshire Police said in a statement to the Adver.

But the AA’s message is that “we need more cops in cars”.

Edmund King OBE, president of the motoring organisation, told the Adver: “It is tragic that road deaths have plateaued over the last decade after a period of sharp decline. These deaths are totally unnecessary and should not be happening.

“We rightly hear much about tragic loss of life due to knife crime and yet almost eight times as many people are killed on the roads every single year than die from knife crime.

“Our Yonder driver surveys over the last decade show an 80 per cent plus acceptance rate for speed cameras from drivers yet the situation today is a total postcode lottery.

“We need a concerted effort to reduce road deaths and often basic measures like more road markings or improved junctions can help. 

“But ultimately, we need five-star drivers, in five-star cars, on five-star roads, with five-star enforcement and five-star political commitment to reduce road deaths.”

King concluded that there is a correlation between plateauing road deaths and the decline in dedicated road traffic officers.

“If some people think they will get away with motoring offences, they will take more chances.”

Wiltshire’s PCC has committed investment to two additional community enforcement officers, and two more mobile cameras, to “ensure countywide, intelligence-targeted, speeding enforcement strategies”.

Mr Wilkinson added: “We need to ensure safer roads for all - where communities can carry on with their lives with the peace of mind of fewer speeding drivers.”