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Speed camera funding row could lead to cutbacks

SQUABBLING over speed camera funding could result in massive cutbacks to operations on the Westcountry's main roads, it has emerged.

Devon and Cornwall Safety Camera Partnership's budget has already been slashed after in-year cuts were imposed last summer – resulting in half of its 40 staff losing their jobs.

Funding for the partnership, a joint venture between the police, Highways Agency and four local authorities, is also in line for a further 60 per cent cut.

It resulted in a row between the Highways Agency and local councils, which have threatened to axe enforcement on main roads – such as the M5, A38 and A30 – that the agency is responsible for.

Cuts in road-safety funding coincided with a 41 per cent increase in the number of serious accidents in the last nine months of last year.

"I am concerned about the funding for the partnership," said assistant chief constable Paul Netherton, who is responsible for roads policing for Devon and Cornwall Police.

"Speed cameras do have an impact on peoples' speed and we know that the faster they go, the more likely they are to have an accident and the more serious that accident will be."

A final budget for the partnership has