News from Labour Matters

Shadow Police Minister caught in speed trap spin

Conservative Shadow Police Reform Minister, David Ruffley, who condemned speed cameras last week, campaigned for more speed traps in his own constituency, Labour Matters can reveal. Mr Ruffley organised a petition and repeatedly called for speed cameras on the A143 which runs through Great Barton, yet nationally called speed cameras “cash cows” claiming that “the Government needs to rethink ways of improving road safety”.

The would-be Minister told his constituents that he was “calling on drivers in Suffolk to stop putting child pedestrians’ lives at risk by speeding in residential areas”, and cited a survey of children conducted by the by the road safety charity BRAKE which showed that 75% of children want more speed cameras and that 59% of children know someone who has been killed or hurt in a crash.

Nationally however Mr Ruffley tells a very different story. In national newspapers such as the Daily Mail and The Sun, as well as local papers up and down the country, he becomes the speed trap’s worst critic, attacking the cameras as nothing more than “a nice little earner” for the Government.

The latest figures from the Department for Transport (DfT) however show that speed camera fines fell from £114.6 million in 2005-6 to £104.4 million in 2006-7.

A spokesperson for the DfT defended the use of cameras: “Safety cameras are there to save lives, not make money. Independent research has shown that there are 1,745 fewer deaths and serious injuries at camera sites each year. The Government is clear that the best safety camera is one which takes no fines at all, but succeeds in deterring drivers from speeding.”

Cathy Keeler from the road safety charity BRAKE said that “recent government figures have shown that the number of people exceeding 30mph speed limits has fallen, so the message is getting through.”

Adding that “more people are getting tickets because speed limits are being enforced more vigorously. More people are now beginning to view speeding in the same light as drinking and driving in that it is an anti-social thing to do but there is still a long way to go.”

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