Roadside speed cameras may bite the dust!
Published Date:
04 September 2010
By RORY O'KEEFFE
Political editor

SPEED cameras could be removed from Portsmouth's roads, if a government proposal is enacted later this year.
Portsmouth City Council believes the government is set to make what it feels are unreasonable demands on local authorities, which would see the removal of the city's cameras on grounds of cost.

Council leader Councillor Gerald Vernon-Jackson said:ADVERTISEMENT'The government has plans which look likely to be enacted later this year, which would see us totally liable for all upkeep and maintenance of the speed cameras. Under those circumstances, they'll be impossible for us to afford to operate, so we'd get rid of them all.'

The city council's seven fixed cameras are run through the Hampshire Safer Roads Partnership, which also includes councils across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.

But it pays almost £250,000 per year for membership of the group.

Each year, the council hands over all the fines it collects to central government, which then redistributes the cash to councils and groups across the country.

But new government proposals, which could be introduced as early as next month, are expected to change the rules so the cash is not handed back to councils, or is used to 'top up' the annual grants each authority receives.

Cllr Vernon-Jackson said: 'The policy just makes the cameras unaffordable, and it's hard to see how we could keep operating them under those circumstances. They would have to stop running. In the past, we have received help from the government, but this would be a cut and we wouldn't be able to afford them. '

Earlier this year, the government demanded budget cuts from all local authorities, which caused some councils, including Oxford, to pull out of their road safety partnerships, and turn off their cameras.

But Portsmouth City Council's head of street management Simon Moon denied the council would leave the partnership.

He said: 'We're committed to the safer roads partnership and have no plans which would change our involvement at this point in time. In year funding cuts by central government have been absorbed and we can continue in the partnership until the end of this financial year. Beyond this, the situation remains unclear and as with any financial commitment it will be reviewed when funding sources are known.'

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