Half of local authorities publish speed camera data

Date: 24/8/2011

More than half of the local authorities in England have published their speed camera data in line with the government's drive to increase transparency.

The Department for Transport has announced that 75 councils have made public some or all of the results gathered from the technology in their area.

Meanwhile, a further 72 authorities expect to publish their findings in the forthcoming weeks.

The information will be made up of the accident and casualty rates within speed camera sites, along with the speeds recorded before and after the technology was installed.

As a result, local residents will have the data necessary to make up their own minds as to whether the cameras are having a positive effect on casualty numbers.

Road Safety Minister Mike Penning says: "Local residents have a right to expect that when their council spends money on speed cameras, they publish information to show whether those cameras are helping to reduce accidents or not."

In addition to these publications, police forces will also be making public the number of prosecutions that have arisen annually as a direct result of cameras.

Technology that checks a driver's average speed between a number of fixed points has proved so successful in one part of Scotland there have been calls for more cameras to be installed.

The Herald Scotland exclusively revealed this month that just 213 drivers using the M80 between Glasgow and Stirling have been fined or prosecuted for speeding offences in the last 21 months, which shows that the average speed recorded on the stretch has improved.

Posted by Sarah Bailey