http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/traffic/a ... 20Standard
M25 cameras catch 10,000 in 7 miles
By Dick Murray And David Williams, Evening Standard
13 April 2004
More than 10,000 motorists have been caught by speed cameras guarding a busy seven-mile stretch of the M25, it was revealed today.
At the current rate the cameras - being used to enforce a 40mph limit at roadworks - could snap up £6.5million in fines over two years.
In the last 10 weeks alone they have recorded 10,767 speeding offences, admits the Highways Agency.
The figures will add to the furore over the claimed use of cameras to extract even more money from already hard-pressed motorists.
Motorists and commercial users today condemned them as a "licence to print money" for the Government.
The £147million roadworks scheme will not be completed before 2006. Because it is a national motorway project, money brought in by speed penalties - £60 a time, plus three points on an offending driver's licence - goes straight into Whitehall's coffers and not to the police.
Though work stopped for Easter and the cones were removed, the cameras and 40mph limit remained in force instead of reverting back to the usual 70mph.
Trucker Kelvin Purcell - a regular M25 user who operates a fleet of vehicles - said today: "The cameras are a licence to print money.
The motorway was running well over Easter along that stretch. The limits should have been suspended." Motoring organisations called for the 40mph restriction to be replaced with variable limits according to conditions - for instance at night, when traffic is lighter.
The cameras are sited between junctions 12 (with the M3) and 15 (with the M4.) To persuade drivers to slow down, an electronic sign shows the number of speeding offences already recorded since the roadworks began.
Edmund King, executive director of the RAC Foundation, said: "They should put in extra signs - not only to warn motorists of the danger but also to warn them of the lower limits.
"The object of this exercise should not be to catch motorists speeding, but to get them to slow down near the roadworks. Currently this is obviously not working."
AA spokeswoman Rebecca Rees said: "There should be variable limits so that 40mph does not apply for 24 hours a day.
"There should be higher speeds at night when traffic is lighter."
"The best way to avoid a speeding fine is to slow down."
The Highways Agency said the limits were in force for safety reasons and to protect workers.
When work started, the agency made clear why the strict limit had been imposed. "Up to 11 roadworkers are killed in Highways Agency roadworks every year. For staff that equates to one in a 1,000 chance of being killed."
The roadworks will mean some sections of the existing four lanes being turned into six lanes - creating the first stretch of 12-lane " superhighway" in the UK.
At the same time a new spur road is being constructed from the M25 into Heathrow for passengers using the new Terminal 5.
If speeding offences continue at the same rate until the roadworks are finished, the cameras will bring in a total of £6.5 million in fines.
In January the Evening Standard forecast the problems that motorists faced on a stretch of motorway that is used by 200,000 vehicles a day.
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