http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2626964
12:42pm (UK)
Tories Demand Speed Cameras Siting Probe
By Joe Churcher, Chief Parliamentary Reporter, PA News
An independent study should be carried out into the siting of speed cameras, the Tories insisted today.
Spokesman Damian Green said last week?s publication of a review that found all cameras met Department of Transport rules made the Government look ?ridiculous?.
It was in the interests of the road safety partnerships responsible for the cameras to tell ministers they were in the right place, he suggested.
But Roads Minister David Jamieson accused him of opportunism and challenged him to identify those which were not contributing to safety.
?When you solemnly announced last week that every single speed camera was in exactly the right place, based on evidence provided by the speed camera partnerships who put them where they are in the first place, you simply made yourself look ridiculous,? Mr Green said at question time.
?I invite you to talk to the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police who has just removed hundreds of cameras because they were in the wrong position.
?And what do you say to the AA who say that ?no partnerships are going to say cameras are going to be taken down because they would risk not being able to cover their costs. In fact the pressure is on them to keep putting up more cameras just to pay for the ever-rising numbers of staff.?
?We need a proper independent audit of the cameras to make sure each one is helping road safety and not just making money for bureaucrats and the Government.
?It is time to change this policy which is damaging relations between the police and the general public and is emphatically not the best way to make our roads safer.?
Mr Jamieson said the capital?s safety partnership had backed the siting of all its cameras.
?If you say the cameras are in inappropriate places then come to the House with that evidence.
?What you have is not a policy; it?s a posture.?
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The temerature is rising...