Quote: More than 300 devices across the whole of the West Midlands will become inactive on April 1. With a recent survey revealing that around half the country’s cameras are turned off, the number of motorists receiving points on their licence and a £60 fine is likely to plummet. The safety camera programme has been in retreat since the election of the Coalition after the new Government announced that it would no longer provide money to pay for new devices. A wave of councils have also withdrawn their funding from road safety partnerships as the Government’s austerity programme started to bite. With many cameras reaching the end of their useful life and spare parts hard to find, especially for films which use film, rather than digital images. In the West Midlands a coalition of seven councils have slashed their road safety budget from £1.93 million this year to £750,000 in 2011-12. Replacing its existing cameras would cost £4 million. |