Oxfordshire Speed Cameras Return

October 2010

 

Just three months after Oxfordshire turned off its speed cameras, the county is set to switch them back on again.

 

72 cameras and 89 mobile units were switched off on August 1^st after the county council withdrew its £600,000 funding to the Thames Valley Safer Roads Partnership, as a result of the cut in government spending.

 

Oxfordshire was the only authority in the region to do this, with the police mobile speed camera and the enforcement cameras still operating in Berkshire and Buckinghamshire

 

Shortly after the turn off the Partnership claimed the number of drivers speeding past the deactivated cameras had increased by up to 88 per cent. This brought a storm of protest from road safety groups and residents who warned it would lead to an increase in accidents.  But on Tuesday it was revealed that the police and council were nearing a deal to turn all the cameras back on.

 

A county council spokesman said: “We’ve been in discussion with our partners at Thames Valley Police and we’re close to an agreement to have the cameras switched back on in the future.”

“We look forward to being able to reveal the detail of that agreement in future weeks.”

 

Meanwhile, a new super speed camera is to be rolled out across Europe from 2013. Each unit, costing £50,000, can catch motorists committing five different offences at the same time.

 

As well as speeding, the device reads number plates and can instantly recognise cars with out-of-date tax discs and no insurance. It can also detect tailgating and film inside a vehicle and see if the driver is wearing a seatbelt. 

 

The trailer-mounted device is connected to police computers via GPS and can instantly process prosecutions. It is expected to eventually fit into a police vehicle.  ASSET (Advance Safety and Driver Support for Essential Road Transport) is being funded with £7.1m of European Commission money.

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