Only 56 tickets issued for speeding on M6

Fewer than 60 speeding tickets were handed out to motorists on the M6 despite two years of restrictions, it emerged today.

Reduced 50mph speed limits were imposed for the £150 million works to open up the hard shoulder at peak times between Junction 10a for Cannock and Wolverhampton and Junction 8 at Great Barr.

The stretch of the motorway is used by around 160,000 drivers a day.

But police across the West Midlands, Staffordshire and West Mercia issued just 56 fixed penalty notices of £60 during that time, compared to thousands elsewhere on motorways across the country.

The figures, released under the Freedom of Information of Act, reveal the number of tickets given out by the Central Motorway Police Group from February 2009 to the same month this year. The group is made up of officers from the West Midlands, West Mercia and Staffordshire.

Just six tickets were handed out by officers from the West Midlands and 28 by Staffordshire Police on the stretch between Essington and West Bromwich. A further 22 were handed out by West Mercia, but this was from Junction 10 at Walsall to Spaghetti Junction.

In 2006 the number of motorists caught speeding along the M6 through Staffordshire was 1,267.

The lack of tickets was described as "extraordinary" by RAC Foundation spokesman Phillip Gomm. He said:"Government figures show that in free-flowing motorway traffic, half of all cars do above 70mph."

He questioned whether police had the resources to enforce the speed limit. Staffordshire Police spokeswoman Faye Casey said: "The section of the M6 mentioned is a very busy part of the network and thankfully most drivers manage to complete their journeys without speeding or committing any other offence."