Green Party member of the London Assembly, Jenny Jones, has written to the Government’s Transport Minister, Alistair Darling, to complain that this will stop plans to site another 180 speed cameras at the worse casualty hotspots around London. The freeze on staffing will hit London hardest because it is so far behind the rest of the country in placing speed cameras at sites which meet the Government’s tough criteria of four or more people being killed or seriously injured in the last three years.
Although London has nearly 400 speed cameras and 300 traffic light cameras, around 250 of these are legacy cameras which flash at speeding cars but never have film in them. This leaves around 600 London sites which still need to be covered by fixed cameras, the biggest backlog in the UK. The Government freeze on staffing will mean that only 60 new fixed sites are covered in the coming year, rather than the 180 planned. TfL believe this will mean around 40 people being killed or serious injured who would be otherwise okay.
Green Party member of the London Assembly, Jenny Jones said
"Like them, or loathe them, these safety cameras are one of the best ways of cutting deaths and serious injuries in London, which is why I’m so frustrated about this Government freeze on the staffing of Camera Partnerships. The Government might generate some good headlines by going soft on speeding motorists, but these plans will mean that dozens of Londoners will be dead or seriously injured at the end of this year, who would otherwise be fine. How are we meant to get on with the job of saving lives and reducing injuries when we have years of delay and inaction, now followed by Government backtracking?"
"The reason why this Government’s decision to freeze staffing hits London harder than any other region, is because we are so behind in getting these cameras into operation. Other areas of the country have already covered all the most dangerous roads and junctions, whilst London is barely half way there. We have made a lot of progress since the days when only one in eight cameras had film in them and much of that was just dumped in the bin. However, we still have a situation in London where motorists can race past many cameras in London at well over the speed limit, but nothing happens. We haven’t got to the backroom adminstration up to stratch and that means we haven’t got the money, nor the capacity, to properly enforce the speed limit at all the worse casualty hotspots for at least another two or three years. Put simply, that means people are being killed or injured, who shouldn’t be."
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