Speed cameras to be switched off in Wiltshire (From This Is Wiltshire)

Surely it would make more sense to keep a few running and swap them about inside the boxes at minimal cost.

That way they still provide a deterent and can be re-activated at minimal cost should it become viable to operate them again.

Not sad to see th emobile cameras going. Only once saw them operated in a manner I would deem "deterent" and that was near a school entrance. Rest of the time they seem perched above the M4 making money.

This finally gives the lie to the statement from those with a vested interest to protect their jobs - those in the Safety Partnership - that fixed cameras were there to improve traffic safety rather than a revenue-gathering exercise. The fixed Gatso cameras in Swindon have already been switched off for several months and the statistics suggest that road safety has actually improved at those sites since the switch-off. If they really were to do with safety then the relatively small sum required to keep them going would have been found, albeit at the expense of something else. I fully support the prosecution of speeding motorists however, and as stated, a much more effective way of achieving this can now be enacted by the increased use of unmarked police cars and the mobile speed recording devices used by the police. So good riddance to the fixed cameras and the 40 Jobsworths who will now rightly be collecting their P45s.

At last scrapping a tax on the motorist!!
Now if we could just the police to do a proper job instead of sitting around trying to catch people doing 5mph over the limit eating donuts that would be a real result but alas they only time the police rush is if the chip shop is shutting............
..

What an absolute disaster this will be for the Tax Payers and road users. If I could give up driving today I would. When serious / fatal road collisions / casulties increase, and they WILL, the cost to the general public is in the region of £110,000.00 per person per incident. These 'safety' camera units are and have always been self funding and the only people who have ever had to pay out are the offending motorists. I as a Tax Payer have never had to pay for their services to our county as I have never been caught speeding in all the years I have been driving. It is pure ignorance of anyone who thinks they haven't made a difference, the 'facts' are they have. I live in a village without pavements, people whiz through the area with absolutely no regard for road safety. Having a camera sign at either end of the village is enough to warn some motorists that a camera van MAY be parked in the area and it is normally enough to slow them down. Without the signs and the 'threat' of possibly being caught god only knows what our roads are going to be like now. I know a few traffics cops, my brother-in-law for one, and they have all told me they are pushed to the absolute limits as it is and they will not be able to increase what they don't have available to them...time! As for the so called Swindon statistics, how can anyone come up with 'true' figures when all the cameras, road markings and signage is still in place and hasn't been removed. The red light camera's are/were still opperative and the vans have still been active in the area as requested by Swindon Council. I for one will be interested to see the true and accurate casulty figures when all the signage and markings have been removed and the camera's have been decommissioned because lets face it, anyone from outside the county who didn't know that the 'few' GATSO's had been switched off would still have reacted to the warning signs as I do when driving in ours and other counties. Also, who's now going to have to pocket the cost of all the redundancies across the country, as Wiltshire will not be the first to close, we the Tax Payers will have to. The financial cost in benefit payouts not only to the staff at the camera units but also to everyone else connected to the units who will also be out of work be be costly. The cost to the Tax Payer is going to be in the Millions, not forgetting the loss of 'free' revenue to the treasury. Our Council Tax will increase to pay for the treasury's loss. When you know of people or have family or friends who have been killed as a result of speeding like I have then you may actually realise the closure of the units is just devastating. We were getting a FREE service for godness sake. If you still choose to speed in Wiltshire then I just hope you meet yourselves coming round the next bend instead of taking out the lives of any innocent motorists!

MONEY MONEY MONEY THATS WHAT ITS ALL ABOUT WHEN WILL PEOPLE LEARN YOU GET NOTHING FREE I ONLY HOPE THE STATISTICS SHOW NEXT YEAR THAT MONEY DIDNT COST LIVES .ONE THING IS FOR SURE UNDER THE PRESENT FINANCIAL CLIMATE ITS NOT GOING TO GET ANY BETTER.

there are many inconsiderate speeders out there who have killed innocent people as well as leaving some in wheelchairs and many of whom are kids.I am not talking about the average road user going 5 miles an hour over,but the people who overtake for the sake of it or showing off to mates who end up killing the unknowing innocent coming the other way.People who drive like this need to see the devastation to these peoples family who are left behind picking up the pieces.Yes we need more officers and unmarked cars but at the same time we need these judges to give out reasonable punishments to reoffenders who continue to speed.There may not be space in prisons but longrer licence bans could help.

One assumes that if there was not a 27% cut in the budget the Police would have kept them.....they are bloody t****** in my opinion.....and I note the slime balls that hide in laybys and obscured by bridges in the van normally on roads that do not have predestrians(such as the 303!!! )will still continue to harrass motorists and I can only guess that they will double their efforts!

eusnomis wrote:
At last scrapping a tax on the motorist!! Now if we could just the police to do a proper job instead of sitting around trying to catch people doing 5mph over the limit eating donuts that would be a real result but alas they only time the police rush is if the chip shop is shutting............ ..

eusnomis - your comments just show how little you know about what the Police actually do, first point no Police officer is ever going to prosecute someone for being 5mph over the limit, if you read the legislation you would know why. i take it you are fortunate enough never to have known anybody killed or seriously injured in a collision, i have and i take offence to your comments particularly those about the Police for whome i have great respect for the job they do in difficult circumstances. Second point chips are old news, the Police have moved on to kebabs. If your going to comment get your facts right.

No mention about the 40 people who work in the Camera Road Safety Unit at Hopton, Devizes being earmarked for redundancy as a result of the funding cuts. No doubt there are more redundancies to follow, despite what the Chief Constable and the Police Authority Chairman say.

Facts not opinions:

1950 to 1993 deaths per 10bn veh km fell by 7% pa, since then in the camera era by less than 3% pa

10,000 more dead than would have been expected.

Cameras cover 1% of Wilts roads and have no effect elsewhere

14% of fatal collisions involve or might involve speeding - cameras cut half of speeding.

1% x 14% x 50% = 0.07%, the maximum deaths cameras could cut

At 45 pa that's 1 every 1,400 years, for £2m a year.

Read
www.parliament.the-s
tationery-office.co.
uk/pa/cm200607/cmsel
ect/cmtran/memo_road
s/memo1.pdf

where Stephen Ladyman admitted that vehicle activated signs are 9 times as cost effective as cameras. That too was still wrong - because only over 1 year. Over 10 years the ratio is 50 to 1 - see www.safespeed.org.uk
/vas.html
including my contact details for anyone who wants the truth instead of the garbage we have been fed for 15 years.

That's right, signs provide the same supposed benefit for 2% of the price of cameras, the DfT and Transcom have known that for more than 3 years but have ignored it - they prefer to save face than save lives.

More facts:Wilts KSI did not fall 33% from 2006 to 2009 but 24.5%. or 8% pa.

However 2006 was a lot higher than 2005, and the more accurate figure is that from 2005 to 2009 they fell 9.7% or 2.5% pa - rather less than national average.

Why did DCC Geeny chose 2006 to 2009 not 2005- 2009? Why indeed.?

Fatality numbers being small vary a great deal so look at average over 3 years. When Partnership started it was 43, then 46.3, 43.3, 48.6, 50.6, 49, 46.3, 48.0, 47.7 and 47.7. Any indication thee of camera success? I thought not.

In reality the speed camera era has been the worst road safety disaster since Heinkels were dropping bombs in the blackout, and we know who was responsible for it.

Closure of Wilts Partnership and others is the best news for ages - Rejoice!

Incidentally I have the plans for the Partnership asked "What happens if the income does not cover our costs?" Answer - lower the camera trip speed to ensure more income

And that's another fact

sorry donkeysmum but your posting was the longest piece of utter tripe I have read for a long time since the Working Time Directive - and your grammar and spelling is even worse

Sad fact is old chap you simply have no idea what you are writing about.

and that's a fact.

Scarlett2709 wrote:
No mention about the 40 people who work in the Camera Road Safety Unit at Hopton, Devizes being earmarked for redundancy as a result of the funding cuts. No doubt there are more redundancies to follow, despite what the Chief Constable and the Police Authority Chairman say.

So by your reckoning, we should still be paying lamplighters and knocker uppers a living wage. Not to mention the bloke that used to walk in front of a horseless carriage carrying a lamp.

I don't speed because I am too tight to waste extra petrol and brake pads.

Tacho wrote:

eusnomis wrote: At last scrapping a tax on the motorist!! Now if we could just the police to do a proper job instead of sitting around trying to catch people doing 5mph over the limit eating donuts that would be a real result but alas they only time the police rush is if the chip shop is shutting............ ..

eusnomis - your comments just show how little you know about what the Police actually do, first point no Police officer is ever going to prosecute someone for being 5mph over the limit, if you read the legislation you would know why. i take it you are fortunate enough never to have known anybody killed or seriously injured in a collision, i have and i take offence to your comments particularly those about the Police for whome i have great respect for the job they do in difficult circumstances. Second point chips are old news, the Police have moved on to kebabs. If your going to comment get your facts right.

Don't tell me what I do and don't know, I know exactly what the police do - NOTHING the one time I phoned them all I was told was to email them!! Great if someone is breaking into my house, I'll just ask them to wait while I log my computer on.
You need to get your facts right the police are bloody useless and are only there as government tax collectors that is why this country is in the state it's in.
As for the police moving on to kababs that is why they are all fat useless T****rs

eusnomis wrote:

Tacho wrote:

eusnomis wrote: At last scrapping a tax on the motorist!! Now if we could just the police to do a proper job instead of sitting around trying to catch people doing 5mph over the limit eating donuts that would be a real result but alas they only time the police rush is if the chip shop is shutting............ ..

eusnomis - your comments just show how little you know about what the Police actually do, first point no Police officer is ever going to prosecute someone for being 5mph over the limit, if you read the legislation you would know why. i take it you are fortunate enough never to have known anybody killed or seriously injured in a collision, i have and i take offence to your comments particularly those about the Police for whome i have great respect for the job they do in difficult circumstances. Second point chips are old news, the Police have moved on to kebabs. If your going to comment get your facts right.

Don't tell me what I do and don't know, I know exactly what the police do - NOTHING the one time I phoned them all I was told was to email them!! Great if someone is breaking into my house, I'll just ask them to wait while I log my computer on.
You need to get your facts right the police are bloody useless and are only there as government tax collectors that is why this country is in the state it's in.
As for the police moving on to kababs that is why they are all fat useless T****rs

Maybe the Police know what you're like and decided to avoid you.

Scarlett2709 wrote:
No mention about the 40 people who work in the Camera Road Safety Unit at Hopton, Devizes being earmarked for redundancy as a result of the funding cuts. No doubt there are more redundancies to follow, despite what the Chief Constable and the Police Authority Chairman say.

Good riddance to the lot of them. Let's hope they fail to get jobs again quickly and so remain unemployed over Christmas - that will be just retribution for all the misery they have dished out to motorists over the past years. And, if you read my original post, you will see that I am very much in favour of speeders being prosecuted. It's just that cameras are not the way to it. Covert action by the police is.

That's a bit harsh. As much as I agree they are a waste of time (the cameras) I wouldn't wish unemployment, seasonal or otherwise on anybody. The only people who had misery dished out to them were those who made a conscious decision to exceed the speed limit - No sympathy with that!

The Maxter wrote:
That's a bit harsh. As much as I agree they are a waste of time (the cameras) I wouldn't wish unemployment, seasonal or otherwise on anybody. The only people who had misery dished out to them were those who made a conscious decision to exceed the speed limit - No sympathy with that!

What about those who were more interested in what was going around them rather than having their eyes glued to the speedometer?

Oh, hahahahahahahabestne
wsI've readallweekhahahahah
a!!!

"These are good people who have provided an excellent service to the public...." Really? So why was there a camera van in Lyneham doing people unlucky enough to think that they could travel a little faster than 30mph on a bank holiday when the shops were shut, the school closed and no other traffic around and certainly no people? Yet on a busy Monday they are never there -because the traffic can't get above 20mph so they couldn't get any "customers"? They are a load of money grubbing jobsworths and we're all glad to see them on the dole!

Local Bloke wrote:

eusnomis wrote:

Tacho wrote:

eusnomis wrote: At last scrapping a tax on the motorist!! Now if we could just the police to do a proper job instead of sitting around trying to catch people doing 5mph over the limit eating donuts that would be a real result but alas they only time the police rush is if the chip shop is shutting............ ..

eusnomis - your comments just show how little you know about what the Police actually do, first point no Police officer is ever going to prosecute someone for being 5mph over the limit, if you read the legislation you would know why. i take it you are fortunate enough never to have known anybody killed or seriously injured in a collision, i have and i take offence to your comments particularly those about the Police for whome i have great respect for the job they do in difficult circumstances. Second point chips are old news, the Police have moved on to kebabs. If your going to comment get your facts right.

Don't tell me what I do and don't know, I know exactly what the police do - NOTHING the one time I phoned them all I was told was to email them!! Great if someone is breaking into my house, I'll just ask them to wait while I log my computer on. You need to get your facts right the police are bloody useless and are only there as government tax collectors that is why this country is in the state it's in. As for the police moving on to kababs that is why they are all fat useless T****rs

Maybe the Police know what you're like and decided to avoid you.

Maybe they are just to idle to do any work while as a tax payer I pay their wages.......

What worries me now is what replaces these infernal devices? I am old school and believe it to be the job of the trained roads policing(Traffic officer in normal speak!)officers to do this job of speed enforcement and traffic Policing in genaral(Roads do not commit offences as far as i am aware). Hopefully they will also concentrate on the causes of collisions that are much higher up the food chain. When it comes to deaths on our roads, careless, dangerous and drink/drug driving, although not so revenue rich and are harder to detect, cause many more road deaths. It worries me that the powers that be are to let anyone with a bug up the bits get hold of a laser device and point it at road users! I have seen these people in the villages with their reflectives and clip boards. These people have little else to do and may cause more damage than they solve, lets hope that a motorist is not distracted by their untrained actions. It also seems that specials are being "trained". This is also of concern. Is speeding the only crime worthy of all this attention? I speak as someone who has been burgled twice and had more than one vehicle stolen. I took every precaution i could and got little comfort from the response of the boys in blue. The reasons for the use of these cameras were based on good intentions, unfortunately they soon became a revenue generator and the majority of the public have seen through this scam. Look at how the law had to be warped to use them (Sec172)This completely turns innocent until proven guilty on its head. It is remarkable how the empire grew to 40 people and that they peddled the statistics and scare mongering as a way staying employed(conflict of interest?) I hope that nanny has gone for good and we can, with the help of these trained officers, instill a sense of responsibility to all road users based on education and training. Most numb nuts that speed around our villages etc are stupid enough to get seen, report them, let the Police do their job based on intelligence. Once last fact, i remember people who lived in a village not too far from Devizes complain about the speeding motorists, when the police responded with a check, the majority of the offenders caught were from that village and one of them had complained!

eusnomis wrote:

Local Bloke wrote:

eusnomis wrote:

Tacho wrote:

eusnomis wrote: At last scrapping a tax on the motorist!! Now if we could just the police to do a proper job instead of sitting around trying to catch people doing 5mph over the limit eating donuts that would be a real result but alas they only time the police rush is if the chip shop is shutting............ ..

eusnomis - your comments just show how little you know about what the Police actually do, first point no Police officer is ever going to prosecute someone for being 5mph over the limit, if you read the legislation you would know why. i take it you are fortunate enough never to have known anybody killed or seriously injured in a collision, i have and i take offence to your comments particularly those about the Police for whome i have great respect for the job they do in difficult circumstances. Second point chips are old news, the Police have moved on to kebabs. If your going to comment get your facts right.

Don't tell me what I do and don't know, I know exactly what the police do - NOTHING the one time I phoned them all I was told was to email them!! Great if someone is breaking into my house, I'll just ask them to wait while I log my computer on. You need to get your facts right the police are bloody useless and are only there as government tax collectors that is why this country is in the state it's in. As for the police moving on to kababs that is why they are all fat useless T****rs

Maybe the Police know what you're like and decided to avoid you.

Maybe they are just to idle to do any work while as a tax payer I pay their wages.......

Oh dear, back to that old chestnut eh ?

I pay your wages officer, don't you know who I am ???

Rhubarb !!!!!!!!

What people don't realise is there are no more roads policing units to do speed enforcement.
As a result, if they now have to do all the speed enforcement as well, they won't be doing the other things they are specialists in such as ANPR, drunk/dangerous driving & no insurance tax checks.
You won't get more Police on the roads because there a'rnt any more. Speed cameras were not an answer in themselves, but one tool in the arsenal.
Community speed watch have no powers - all they can do is note the reg of cars & get the NPT's to write them a letter. They do not have cameras so cannot get proof for prosecution.

Speed cameras might be going but the number of camera vans have tripled. They are far more effective too, never in one place for long unlike fixed cameras.

eusnomis - clearly hit a sore point about your lack of knowledge. Do you realise how stupid (not to mention original) a comment like " I PAY YOUR WAGES" really is, dont you think the Police pay tax so they also pay their wages, in fact they probably pay more than you. Please enlighten us all do you pay your own wages, do you have a job or do the Police pay yours as well.

Boiker Boy wrote:
Speed cameras might be going but the number of camera vans have tripled. They are far more effective too, never in one place for long unlike fixed cameras.

Sorry, but all the vans & bikes are going too as they were all in the same unit. I saw someone today starting to take down all the camera signs in Swindon & I take it they will all come down in the rest of the county as well.
I live in a small town and the vans were the only Police presence doing speed enforcement I ever saw. Now I don't think there will be any as there are not going to be any more local bobbies & the ones we have have never had the time to do any!

Camera unit gone by october.
Wilts Police dog section being downsized, head trainer made redundant 4 months ago.
Police helicopter may be next.

They state that wiltshire has one of the best safety records in the country, and yet the roads round this area are mainly death traps, especially the M4 between Swindon east and the M32 turnoff. You take your life in your own hands if you enter this strip of tarmac during the rush hours (am/pm), and all there has been as a deterant has been some lonely camera vans between junc 17 & 15!

Perhaps we could cut out the pcsos and replace them will real police officers that have powers and work past 10 at night when even more speeders are out.

If they were being that observant why didn't they see the camera van?

My bugbear with them, is that they would rather sit at the end of a long dual carriageway and cream in off people who were speeding but relatively low risk. - Never saw them in chippenham at all, Hungerdown lane, A4 etc.

Lawbiding Citizen wrote:
They state that wiltshire has one of the best safety records in the country, and yet the roads round this area are mainly death traps, especially the M4 between Swindon east and the M32 turnoff. You take your life in your own hands if you enter this strip of tarmac during the rush hours (am/pm), and all there has been as a deterant has been some lonely camera vans between junc 17 & 15!

Whilst I agree that its a dangerous section of road, I must point out that I believe Wiltshire Constabulary are only responsible up to the Leigh Delamare services area. The Tormarton Junction falls under Avon & Somerset Constabulary. Not sure what South Glos are doing with their cameras.

Seems hardly a day goes by when there isn't an accident between Leigh Delamare and Swindon East. Hard to fathom how people can crash on 3 lanes of traffic all travelling in same direction so often!

I can answer your question regards the M4 having plodded that stretch for 8 years. The hill. Slow vehicles overtake each other, funnelling the faster traffic into the right hand lane. A late decision to move over, insufficient distance between two or more cars, brake, concertina = Crunch!

I am of course in the wrong place... I'm referring to the stretch from J15 to Membury! - I seem to have a problem with my internal compass lately..

Tacho
Yes the police pay taxes, the differance is I work for my wages unlike them :p

Can people stop pasting in each other's comments into your own rant - it takes me long enough to read this rubbish without having to read it twice.
Anyway, when are B&NES going to remove their speed cameras, most notably on the A46/Bath bypass? I am one of several motorists that has to regularly sit behind a lorry gingerly braking down the hill at 45mph. As soon as it becomes dual-carriage way we overtake, then immediately all slam our brakes on one behind each other to get through the 1st speed camera, speed up for the only potentially dangerous part of that road where it goes down to one lane to go under the bridge, and then once it is safe to go faster (goes back to 2 lanes), we all slam our brakes on (along with the adjoining traffic from Bath) to get through the 2nd speed camera. Once this peril is overcome, it is a flat out race to the roundabout where most of us turn right for Bradford-on-Avon. Many (not me) are tempted to overtake the slower motorists on the inside lane at this point, where without that previous speed camera would have been able to overtake much safer further back on the road.
I’m sure that there are examples of this in Wiltshire, but while I want people to be encouraged to drive safely through our villages, this charade must end.

Mr Impartial wrote:
Can people stop pasting in each other's comments into your own rant - it takes me long enough to read this rubbish without having to read it twice.
Anyway, when are B&NES going to remove their speed cameras, most notably on the A46/Bath bypass? I am one of several motorists that has to regularly sit behind a lorry gingerly braking down the hill at 45mph. As soon as it becomes dual-carriage way we overtake, then immediately all slam our brakes on one behind each other to get through the 1st speed camera, speed up for the only potentially dangerous part of that road where it goes down to one lane to go under the bridge, and then once it is safe to go faster (goes back to 2 lanes), we all slam our brakes on (along with the adjoining traffic from Bath) to get through the 2nd speed camera. Once this peril is overcome, it is a flat out race to the roundabout where most of us turn right for Bradford-on-Avon. Many (not me) are tempted to overtake the slower motorists on the inside lane at this point, where without that previous speed camera would have been able to overtake much safer further back on the road.
I’m sure that there are examples of this in Wiltshire, but while I want people to be encouraged to drive safely through our villages, this charade must end.

Agreed.

The Maxter wrote:

Mr Impartial wrote:
Can people stop pasting in each other's comments into your own rant - it takes me long enough to read this rubbish without having to read it twice.
Anyway, when are B&NES going to remove their speed cameras, most notably on the A46/Bath bypass? I am one of several motorists that has to regularly sit behind a lorry gingerly braking down the hill at 45mph. As soon as it becomes dual-carriage way we overtake, then immediately all slam our brakes on one behind each other to get through the 1st speed camera, speed up for the only potentially dangerous part of that road where it goes down to one lane to go under the bridge, and then once it is safe to go faster (goes back to 2 lanes), we all slam our brakes on (along with the adjoining traffic from Bath) to get through the 2nd speed camera. Once this peril is overcome, it is a flat out race to the roundabout where most of us turn right for Bradford-on-Avon. Many (not me) are tempted to overtake the slower motorists on the inside lane at this point, where without that previous speed camera would have been able to overtake much safer further back on the road.
I’m sure that there are examples of this in Wiltshire, but while I want people to be encouraged to drive safely through our villages, this charade must end.

Agreed.

LOL

Yes my hip is giving i gyp sitting still for long enough to read all of these postings as well.

Have a break, get up and walk around a bit then come back.

eusnomis wrote:
At last scrapping a tax on the motorist!!
It is only a tax on the motorist who chooses to ignore those round signs with a red border and a number clearly painted in the middle. Believe it or not 'that' number is the maximum speed limit for the road ahead. Simples!

redandy wrote:
eusnomis wrote: At last scrapping a tax on the motorist!! It is only a tax on the motorist who chooses to ignore those round signs with a red border and a number clearly painted in the middle. Believe it or not 'that' number is the maximum speed limit for the road ahead. Simples!

wow so u went learnt the highway code too redandy - completely agree eusnomis it is one of the many taxes put on the motorist and a way of raising funds.....i for another am totally glad they're being removed, more accidents are caused by the idiots slamming their brakes on because they've seen one !!!

I still think cameras are part of the solution, but not THE solution.
Where an accident black spot exists, and the speed limit reduced accordingly, then I see nothing wrong with Camera enforcement.

There are a lot of comments on here that make a lot of sense to me but there are also a lot that I could call nasty, spiteful and moronic. Wanting people to lose their jobs because they've done what they were paid to do, the stupid lies about lazy policemen arresting people for going 5mph over the speed spring straight to mind. I pity those sad, bitter and deluded fools.