More Bull. From W Yorkshire

MORE speed cameras are to go up across West Yorkshire’s roads in the coming months.

The Government has given the green light for 47 new fixed cameras to go on routes where there have been a high number of deaths and serious injuries.

The cameras will go up on 14 sites, including Bradford Road at Batley and the M621 into Leeds.

The move comes after a report commissioned by ministers found there had been a 72% fall in the number of casualties on West Yorkshire roads where cameras had been placed during a three year period up to mid-2003.

Nationally, it was discovered speed cameras save 100 lives per year.

The Government has also said mobile cameras will be employed to slow traffic in 19 new places in the region.

The total number of cameras in West Yorkshire will have risen from 55 in 2002 to 222 by April next year.

Philip Gwynn, publicity officer for West Yorkshire Casualty Reduction Partnership, which organises speed cameras, said the Government’s decision reflected a growing support for such cameras.

He said: “More than 90% of people we surveyed this year supported cameras.

“Some even wanted them on routes where accidents had not been so serious.

“Last year we recorded the lowest number of people killed or seriously injured on the region’s roads. There were 102, the lowest since records began.”

A spokesman for the RAC Foundation, the motoring organisation’s lobbying arm, said cameras saved lives but other forms of bad driving needed to be dealt with, too.

Best Regards
Stuart XV16