Speeding into the New Year

PREVIOUSLY unpublished information about the nation's speed cameras could be made available to drivers from next April under plans unveiled by the Coalition Government.

Road Safety Minister Mike Penning said this week that he wanted more information about all safety cameras to be made public, and suggested details such as accident rates and the options offered to motorists caught speeding should be made available as early as next April.

“Public bodies should be accountable and if taxpayers' money is being spent on speed cameras then it is right that information about their effectiveness is available to the public,” he said.

“The proposals I have announced today will help show what impact cameras are having on accident and casualty rates and also how the police are dealing with offenders.

This is in line with our commitment to improve transparency of government data so that the public are able to make more informed judgements about the work of local and central government.”

The Association of British Drivers said it welcomed the Government's announcements, which if fully approved will force road safety partnerships to publish more information, but said the scope of the information should go further.

“The ABD have years of experience attempting to get raw data out of elusive partnerships without success. Any data grudgingly released is invariably missing vital information or spun in a misleading fashion. This cannot continue,” said ABD Chairman Brian Gregory.

“Only when armed with the full information can the public see exactly what effect an individual camera has had. Of course, the raw data will also need to be ‘trend adjusted' i.e. casualties will have fallen everywhere over any recent ten year period due to huge advances in vehicle design.”

The Department for Transport said it will be working with police and local authority representatives as well as the Highways Agency to discuss the details of what should be published and how. The final requirements will then be confirmed in time for publication in April 2011.

Anyone expecting a New Year round up of the best cars, roads and things from 2010 should click here.