July 2008

Expert: Swindon council must not go “cold turkey” with speed cameras

Swindon Borough Council has an opportunity to give the town some of the safest roads in the UK – but not if it completely dumps funding for speed cameras.

Instead the council should gently move funding from speed cameras to human policing over a number of years, and target the minority of persistent offenders.

That’s the opinion of road safety campaigner Andrew McGavin, who has collected just under 15,000 reports of bad driving on his website BetterDrivingPlease.com, including 125+ in Swindon.

It’s in response to news that the council could become the first in the country to cut £400,000 of funding for speed cameras in the town.

Andrew said: “Scrapping all speed cameras is not the answer. Yes, it would be a popular thing to do as the public see them as government cash generators. But actually there is a place for speed cameras in keeping roads safe.

“They need to be used correctly to target the most dangerous drivers, rather than those doing a few mph over the limit. Then the public will see them as the valuable tools that they are.”

Andrew points towards to an example in Europe where public attitudes to speed cameras have been transformed.

In Sweden the authorities have used them to alter driving behaviours rather than just be perceived as a source of revenue.

He added: “While scaling down some of the worst excesses of speed cameras Swindon council should invest in more human traffic policing to support the Police, similar to the way community support officers are used on the streets.

“Indiscriminate use of speed cameras with low Police visibility on the roads has alienated the public. But now the council is thinking differently, Swindon has the opportunity to have the safest roads in the UK in just a few years.”

More than 1.5 million people have visited BetterDrivingPlease.com to report or search through the 15,000 reports since the site was set up two years ago.

Anyone who spots bad driving can report the number plate of the offending vehicle, what happened and where. Details of all incidents reported are available for anyone to see.

Andrew covers the costs of running the website and the BetterDrivingPlease.com campaign himself, helped by a team of unpaid volunteers.

ENDS

 

NOTES TO EDITORS

• For any further information, quotes or interviews, a BetterDrivingPlease.com spokesman is available. Please email press@publicityheaven.com or call Paul Green on 08452 303049
• To find specific reports of bad driving, go to www.BetterDrivingPlease.com and enter the area in the Keyword search box
• You are welcome to publish any information you find on the website
• A factfile, logo, screenshots and other press resources are available online at http://www.betterdrivingplease.com/press.asp