Fixed speed camera plan for county under way

Fixed and average speed cameras will be coming to the roads of North Yorkshire, the region's deputy mayor has said.

The county does not currently have any fixed cameras, relying instead on 11 mobile safety camera vans.

Jo Coles, Labour deputy mayor for police, fire and crime, said funding would be provided to the area's Road Safety Partnership to develop a plan on how best to introduce static cameras - but did not give a timescale for their introduction.

The partnership said a recent study had shown combining static cameras with mobile cameras would "help reduce casualties and better respond to speeding concerns".

Coles said she and mayor David Skaith wanted to take action to reduce the number of casualties on the area's road network of about 6,000 miles (9,656km).

"In the last five years more than 2,000 people have been killed or seriously injured on our roads in York and North Yorkshire," she said.

"This isn't about raising money, this isn't about catching people out, it's about saving lives.

"For too long the roads have not been safe enough."

Coles said she and the mayor had set aside £165,000 in funding to ensure the Road Safety Partnership had the financial stability it needed and the next step would be to look at where any new cameras could have the biggest impact.

The partnership includes the emergency services, National Highways, York City Council, North Yorkshire Council and the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority.

It said installing static cameras would require "significant investment" and before any final decision was made it would develop a "comprehensive plan to determine technological options, running costs and siting criteria for a camera network".

The deputy mayor said the combined authority would work with the partnership to identify the capital funding that would be needed once a plan was in place.

"We are absolutely determined to act on this because we know communities have been campaigning on this for a really long time," she added.

Community Speedwatch members in Slingsby, near Malton, monitor speeds on the B1257 through the village and said they welcomed the news.

"We consistently find people going above the speed limit," said member Catherine Kinglake.

She said villagers just did not want a fatality and believed fixed cameras would have a "massive positive impact".

"Quite often people are just in their own bubble zooming along and don't realise and you can go from a national limit straight into a 40mph limit."

Fellow member John Breckon agreed: "I just genuinely believe most drivers are decent, nice, kind people and they see a little warning sign asking them to slow down and they'll slow down."

A fixed speed camera trial on the A64 in Sherburn, between Malton and Scarborough, took place but the device was deliberately knocked over on the day it was due to go live.

"There is a vocal minority of people who for whatever reason think the laws of the road do not apply to them," said Coles.

"We know that speed is a big driver of road deaths in our region, not the only driver, but if we are determined to reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured on our roads then we have to look at every measure."

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