Despite council claims they have helped cut deaths and injuries, funding for Warwickshire speed cameras has been slashed drastically.
A £1.2 million grant for speed camera enforcement has been axed under government cuts. Just £250,000 has now been allocated in the county council’s budget.
It implies that with the funds cutting that although there will be the same number of fixed speed camera sites, they will not all be switched on at the same time and the number of mobile vans has been cut from six to three. These will focus on the sites with the worst casualty history.
The funding available for other measures that can address speeding such as safety schemes, education, training and publicity have also been reduced by this cut in budget. Some road safety services are now being charged for and others utilise volunteers.
Now, Warwickshire County Council’s revenue and surplus from running speed awareness workshops (SAWs), aimed at educating less “serious” speeders ,will provide the cash for speed camera enforcement.
Road safety charity Brake has campaigned furiously against the funding cuts. A spokesman said the bottom line wasn’t money; it was “life and death.”
The council says deaths and serious injuries on Warwickshire’s roads have more than halved over the past decade – from 639 in 2001 to 301 last year.
Despite the cuts, the council says it will be able to maintain its good track record of reducing casualties: “Our policy of targeting resources to prevent the greatest number of casualties and create the safest road network possible has served us well with serious and fatal casualties reducing faster than the national average and government targets.
“However, as we confront the biggest spending challenge the county council has ever had, we need to review the way we deploy our available resources to ensure we continue to deliver the greatest possible road safety benefits for Warwickshire’s road users and communities.”