All West Midlands fixed speed cameras to be turned off
Every speed and traffic light camera in the West Midlands will be switched off next year as cash-strapped police and councils switch to using mobile vans to catch drivers, it can be revealed today.
They will be switched off in April in the most drastic move of a cost-cutting programme that has seen over two thirds of 305 fixed camera sites made redundant.
A review will now take place into the long-term future of cameras at the worst accident blackspots, with council chiefs considering spending £489,000 to upgrade the outdated cameras from costly wet film to digital.
Until a decision has been made, they will rely on cameras in vans that will be driven around the region's busiest roads.
West Midlands Police has doubled the number of its speed vans to four.
Yesterday, the West Midlands Planning and Transportation Sub Committee – made up of members of Wolverhampton, Sandwell, Dudley, Walsall, Birmingham, Solihull and Coventry councils – deferred a decision on the digital upgrade pending the outcome of a review.
The upgrade would eventually fund the replacement of 71 cameras at the sites where accidents are the most likely to occur. Another 147 camera housings will be kept as a deterrent.
Over the past year, more than 37,000 speeding drivers were caught by nine cameras set up in vans at the side of the road in the West Midlands and Staffordshire areas.
The entire network of fixed speed cameras across the area caught 65,133 people. Only 73 out of 305 fixed speed cameras in the West Midlands are still in use.
By Political Editor Daniel Wainwright
