Poll: more councils cutting speed cameras

A growing number of local authorities in England have switched off some of their speed cameras due to cuts to central government funding, according to a new survey.

Bracknell Forest, Gloucestershire and Kent confirmed they would cut the use of speed cameras, after a poll of 118 councils by the road safety charity Brake seen by the BBC's Newsnight. The group received 42 responses from councils that receive a road safety grant from the Department of Transport.

Authorities in Devon, Hertfordshire and Plymouth also said their use of speed cameras would be affected by the cuts in grants.

Oxfordshire County Council, which turned off its 72 fixed speed cameras at the end of July after losing £600,000 in funding, has come under fire from road safety groups who claim that the number of drivers speeding past its deactivated cameras has increased by up to 88 per cent. In Wiltshire, Claire Brixley, whose son Ashley, 20, was killed in a crash in 2004, led a protest yesterday against the closure of the Wiltshire and Swindon Camera Safety Partnership, due to a 27 per cent cut in government revenue.