Camera project axed

The Government today confirmed the National Safety Camera Programme is to be axed from the end of next month. 

It admitted for the first time that it meant the end of safety camera partnerships as we know them.

These are organisations made up of police and local authorities which run local speed camera networks with the money collected in fines from the cameras.  

Under the National Safety Camera Programme, local camera partnerships have been given annual grants equivalent to the sum they project will be collected in fines from their cameras.

From April the link between fines and funding will be scrapped. 

New speed camera rules published today by the Department for Transport said: “Camera funding, activities and partnerships are being integrated into the wider road safety delivery process.”

Local Authorities will instead be awarded a grant for all types of road safety measures, which the DfT expects to include more than speed cameras alone. 

Amounts awarded will depend on need and quality of plans, according to the DfT.

For more on the full implications of the change, see next week’s MCN, available from Wednesday, February 7, 2007.