Two static speed cameras on the A38 Gloucester Road in Patchway are among 29 units that Avon and Somerset Police says will be switched back on in the coming weeks for the first time since 2011.
Speed cameras across the force area were switched off four years ago when government funding was withdrawn for the joint local authority and police Safety Camera Partnership.
The force has recently bought six cameras for £1 each from Somerset County Council and 11 from South Gloucestershire Council. Two are owned by Bath and North East Somerset Council, one by North Somerset Council and nine remain the property of Bristol City Council.
The sale of the cameras was agreed by South Gloucestershire Council in June last year, despite opposition from Conservative councillors, who argued that the public should be consulted before any decision was taken about switching them back on.
The 29 cameras will be switched back on in a phased programme, exact dates yet to be confirmed, over the coming weeks and months. Revenue raised from them will be used to fund their maintenance and enforcement.
The locations of the Patchway cameras are:
- A38 Gloucester Road (northbound), near Patchway Roundabout
- A38 Gloucester Road (southbound), near Redfield Road junction
Police Supt Richard Corrigan said:
“The ongoing work we have undertaken with our partners to reinstate static speed cameras in the force area is based on national research showing that cameras add value to road safety. 27% of priority issues raised with the police relate to speeding vehicles in our communities. Also, there was camera infrastructure worth more than two million pounds lying dormant on the roadsides in the force area. We believe that the static cameras can be operated in a cost-neutral way and that reactivating them for use alongside our mobile camera vans will help in making our roads safer.”
Police and Crime Commissioner Sue Mountstevens said:
“This is a positive move which will improve the safety of roads across Avon and Somerset. I know from speaking to people how important road safety is to them and many have been pressing to have the cameras in their communities turned back on as soon as possible. I’m pleased that I can now tell them they are back on.”
“Static cameras will complement the work of the mobile speed enforcement vans and motorbikes that already work across Avon and Somerset and together they send a powerful message to drivers that speeding is being taken seriously.”
For a list of all 29 camera locations, see: Speed cameras switched back on in Avon and Somerset (Avon and Somerset Police)
This article originally appeared in the March 2015 edition of the Bradley Stoke Journal news magazine, delivered FREE, EVERY MONTH, to 9,500 homes in Bradley Stoke, Little Stoke and Stoke Lodge. Phone 01454 300 400 to enquire about advertising or leaflet insertion.
“Revenue raised from them will be used to fund their maintenance and enforcement”
So road safety doesn’t enter the equation?
It doesn’t say that it won’t assist road safety. By the sheer nature of the fact that they are back on and people are aware of the fact will encourage safe driving and being caught will discourage future infringement by those individuals.
With regard to any profits being held by the police – fair play. If it helps fill the coffers and reduces the amount I have to pay as part of the precept in my council tax so be it – I don’t mind.
If you don’t want to play – don’t speed!
Simples!
Let’s dispel all the alleged ‘facts’ about speed cameras, and those on the A38 shall we..
1. Speed Cameras have nothing to do with road safety, this has proven by independent study, they are first and foremost a revenue device, nothing more than that.
2. A38 has not seen any speed related severe accidents since the cameras were turned off, so what ‘safety’ issue are those two cameras going to resolve exactly by turning them on?
3. Now the A38 has been ruined by yet another junction with lights and the new badly designed Police station entrance, where exactly are people supposed to be able to exceed 40?
4. Speed cameras target a specific demographic of people, those who are generally running a bit late… that’s why the van sits further along to catch people heading out to the M5..
5. Anyone who denies speeding, whether intentionally, or inadvertently whilst keeping up with traffic, is lying.
6. Cameras are only effective against those who can pay… the uninsured, the illegal road users, the wealthy who don’t care, they get away with it.. Speed cameras DO discriminate, the law abiding always end up paying up.
7. Nothing collected will reduce your taxes.. don’t believe for one second it will. Any money collected will go straight into the banks of those who own the vans.. who are they, who is bank rolling this, who got paid to approve the decision?
I am a sceptic… road safety has nothing to do with speed, it’s about the quality of driving. The biggest problems we have on the roads which are totally ignored by the Police, are drivers who fail to indicate, and cyclists who abuse the road traffic act.
But it’s easier to go for the soft target, as always.
if you don’t speed then you have no problem SIMPLE I think these cameras are a good idea
I get fed up of people moaning “its the poor old car driver “getting done over again
@Happy – a camera that flashes at 600ms instead of the legally proscribed 500ms will “demonstrate” to a Court that you were travelling at 36mph in a 30mph zone, 48mph in a 40mph zone and 60mph in a 50mph zone.
The calibration certificates for these units are a joke………..bear in mind they’re subject to extreme temperature variations and yet one annual certificate is deemed to be a fit-all solution. So a unit will operate identically at -5C in January as it will in +29C in August????
Go to http://www.srpwestmercia.org.uk/camera-calibration-certificates/ for examples of what pass for calibration certificates.
Pieces of paper bearing a signature, nothing more or less.
I live on the A38 between Flingers and Patchway Roundabout and I can assure you that people do more than 40 on that stretch, however they then move into the left hand lane for Patchway Roundabout, thus avoiding the camera by the Esso/van parked up by Patchway High.
The Majority of people clearly pass both those cameras at 40 or less as it stands and they’re turned off.
A money making scheme. How long before they’re vandalised? I remember the one by the Esso was a few times years ago.
Spoken like a true drone ..”if you don’t speed you don’t have a problem”… this isn’t about speeding Happy, it’s about treating everyone as criminals whether they’re guilty or not. The same as those mobile honey traps.. if a spider sits in a web long enough It will catch a fly.. has it solved the problem, no, it’s just playing a numbers game… the vans are nothing more than mobile cash machines.
What switching those fixed cameras back on simply says is they don’t trust you to have the brains to decide for yourself, so we’ll do it for you.
On your logic you probably agree with the erosion of freedom of speech and the introduction of full time monitoring of all your Internet traffic and mobile phone calls? Let me pre-empt your response,,, “if you’ve got nothing to hide you won’t have a problem”.. that’s not the point!!! Once you remove people’s choice you remove their freedom.
Speed traps… it’s in the bloomin name for gods sake! There is nothing fair or just about their use, they are a means to print money and the only people they catch are those who can afford to pay or are too afraid not too.
We need more Police out and about.. it’s visibilty that prevents crimes like speeding not punitive measures like cameras.
Next they’ll want more cctv around streets ‘just in case’ they catch a criminal… welcome to 1984.
ITS NOTHING TO DO WITH DRONES SPEED KILLS it is about speeding because if you don’t speed you don’t get fined its as simple as that
And yes I do agree about monitoring internet and mobile phones you only have to see what is going on in the world to know if they could keep an eye on people at what they are looking at and then maybe they wont blow us all up or some child wont be assaulted
If NOBODY speeds then NO MONEY is collected…..Simples.
We all speed as well as commit other road traffic violations. When did you last check your indicators, tail light & stop lights are functioning correctly for example?
No we don’t all break the speed limit or other things thanks
28 speed cameras in Bristol area still might not be switched on [Bristol Post]
@SH Irrelevant, surely?
If Plod tell me speed cameras have been decommissioned, I still wouldn’t speed past one and I suspect all motorists think likewise.
Ditto red light cameras; there’s a “dead” camera monitoring a light, do you jump it?
It’s the simple presence that’s the deterrent.
Obvious sign that the speed cameras are about to be reinstated will be the repainting of the white graduation scale markings on the road…..
Who are the cameras meant to protect? because surely the point of a camera is to prevent speeding at accident blackspots and catch those who don’t care.
The A38 cameras sites are old and have limited impact to road safety now, if they were there to provide actual protection they would be sited either over the bridge towards the airfield or further towards Aztec where kids cross the road for school.
Traffic speed on a section of road is controlled by the number of ‘stops’ over its length, since the A38 road layout has changed with the new junctions for airfield road and police station, there isn’t a point to them being there anymore, I would argue adding so many disruptions to the flow of traffic from Aztec West to Filton (9 at last count) actually encourages people to speed by introducing a ‘catch up’ mentality.
The A38 cameras were justified at one time because a couple of pedestrians took a chance and tried to cross a dual carriageway and failed… yes speed might’ve been a factor, but you can’t stop accidents unless you enforce the law on both road users and non-road users… we don’t have a jay walking laws like the US, so it’s easier to pick on the motorist.
Speed doesn’t kill, it’s the drivers inability to control a car safely ‘at speed’ that is the problem. The emergency services speed all the time, but they generally don’t kill other road users.
At 1045 this morning (Thurs 15th Apr), technicians were working on the camera on the A38 northbound (opposite Esso garage). It remains to be seen whether the ‘new/refurbished’ camera needs the white line graduation markings on the road. If so these will need repainting to be legal.
should move the camera to Coniston road ! if would be out of film by 9.30 !!
Agree with you Rodders
Mind you, I see the stupid ramps outside fire station are going back in this week. Ramps are hazard to braking with the slippery-when-wet surface. Should have sorted out the sinking paved surface on the corner first.
Speed bumps are the least of your worries by rodway road shops,,,, its what you might walk in if you get out your car !!! street is like one big open litter bin/ashtray….. a mess everyday.