AA tells motorists where to slow down for speed cameras

The Automobile Association was criticised yesterday after releasing a road atlas which details the location of thousands of speed cameras.

The Automobile Association was criticised yesterday after releasing a road atlas which details the location of thousands of speed cameras.

The AA said its decision to include the cameras in its new road atlas of Britain had the backing of the police and was being done in the interests of road safety.

But the move was criticised by the environmental transport group Transport 2000, which said that indicating the locations of cameras would help speeding motorists escape detection. The atlas shows the locations of 3,000 fixed speed cameras and 3,000 mobile speedtrap spots.

Nicola Atkinson, a spokeswoman for the AA, said the aim was to pinpoint accident blackspots. "We have done this because we believe people should know where the cameras are for safety reasons," she said. "Cameras are put in places where there have been four fatalities or serious injuries in three years and people should be aware of these accident blackspots."

Steve Hounsham, a spokesman for Transport 2000, said: "This is irresponsible in the extreme. The AA is helping those motorists who want to break the law to escape detection.

"This is like publishing the position of all police stations in a special atlas for car thieves."