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ICwales.co.uk, 8th May 2007
POLICE FORCES across the UK could scrap the lists giving advance-warning of speed camera locations, with a Welsh force taking the lead. Under new legislation police forces are planning to stop providing public information detailing the locations of mobile speed vans.
Previously the Arrive Alive partnership in North Wales has published a weekly list of roads where mobile speed cameras will be deployed. But as of yesterday, the lists are no longer being issued. And road safety campaigners last night urged the rest of Britain to fall into line behind North Wales by scrapping all publicity for speed patrols.
Arrive Alive says changes to guidelines enable it to target any roads where it believes speeding is a problem, rather than being restricted to sites where a minimum quota of accidents and deaths have occurred.
A statement from the partnership says, “Where safety cameras operate there will be permanent or portable camera signs to advise drivers. The aim of Arrive Alive continues to be casualty reduction on our roads.”
Inspector Essi Ahari, who manages Arrive Alive, said, “We're not going to be telling people where we are going to be any more. We don't need to. It will be anywhere anytime, day or night.
“In the past we had to wait for people to die or get seriously injured before we put up the cameras. It was reactive. “Putting cameras where they are needed will be proactive.”
RoadPeace, a charity for road accident victims and their relatives, said it hoped others would follow.
Founder and president Brigitte Chaudhry said, “Other partnerships should do the same.
“Whenever I spoke to colleagues in Europe about speed cameras having to be painted bright yellow and the four crashes involving death or serious injuries before a camera is allowed, they wouldn't believe me. They thought it was completely illogical.
“People should obey speed limits, not only where a camera is signed but everywhere. People aren't aware of the risks they take when they are speeding.”
Brynle Williams, Conservative AM for North Wales, said he opposed speed cameras 70% of the time but supported Arrive Alive's new approach.
“Speed cameras have been put in ridiculous places where there's no need for them, and not where you really need them – outside schools, on bends or where you know traffic is speeding through villages and built-up areas.”
He had tried to persuade Arrive Alive to deploy a speed camera in Hendre, a village near his Flintshire farm, but enforcement was restricted to a nearby area which qualified because of its accident history.
Another patrol area was on the A470 between the A55 interchange at Llandudno Junction and the outskirts of Glan Conwy. “Fifty metres past the boundary there's a severe blackspot but they can't operate cameras on that because nobody has been killed there, although there's been a lot of accidents.
“Common sense needs to be applied,” said Mr Williams, one of the farmers who led the September 2000 blockade of Stanlow oil refinery which plunged Britain into chaos. He said he was concerned about leisure visitors to Wales, especially motorcyclists who sped along unfamiliar roads, and claimed there was less enforcement during unsocial work hours.
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