Swindon Borough Council has stopped funding its use of speed cameras.

Swindon Borough Council has announced it will stop its funding of fixed speed cameras in the town – the first council in the country to do so.

Funding of the cameras has been under review (see ICM’s earlier article about the county’s use of cameras) and last night – Wednesday 22 October – councillors unanimously voted to withdraw funding of the Wiltshire & Swindon Safety Camera Partnership.

Speaking to the BBC’s Radio 5 Live programme, Councillor Peter Greenhalgh called for measures other than speed cameras to be implemented on the town’s roads: “Safety cameras are good at catching people speeding, but that’s all they do. If you have active road policing, the police officers should check whether someone is insured, whether they are fit to be on the road, whether the driver’s under the influence.

“So there’s a whole raft of things that the police themselves can do and I think that people actually want to see active road policing.”

According to the road safety charity, Brake, eight deaths and 79 serious injuries happen on the UK’s roads every day. The charity has criticised the council’s “reckless” decision: “In removing its speed cameras, Swindon Borough Council is entering into a very dangerous experiment with people’s lives. Staying well within speed limits is essential for everyone’s safety and speed cameras are an important tool in catching drivers who insist on breaking the law and putting lives in danger,” commented Jane Whitham, Brake’s Senior Communications Officer.

Brake’s support of speed cameras is advocated by data from the Wiltshire & Swindon Safety Camera Partnership, which shows that speed cameras have proved effective at reducing the number of accidents within the county. Annual figures up until April 2008, compared with figures before speed camera enforcement, show over a 30% reduction in the number of people seriously injured or killed – with a reduction of almost 47% for children under 16 years old.