Saturday 26 March 2011It’s the end of the road for speed traps as cameras across Northamptonshire are set to be turned offSpeed cameras will be turned offPublished on Wednesday 23 March 2011 08:35EVERY speed camera in the county is to be switched off in just over a week, police have confirmed.However, the 40 redundant yellow camera shells across Northamptonshire are likely to remain in place for some time as Northamptonshire County Council draws up a programme to remove them.The decision came after Northamptonshire County Council withdrew its £1 million a year funding from the county’s Casualty Reduction Partnership last month.The partnership – made up of police, the county council, the fire service and other agencies – is to be scrapped on March 31, the same day the county’s 40 speed traps will be switched off.As well as the static speed cameras, two average speed checks, including one along Lumbertubs Way, in Northampton, will also be switched off.As part of the partnership, the speed cameras are owned by the police, who will collect them on March 31.However, the camera housings themselves are the responsibility of the county council.A spokesman from Northamptonshire County Council yesterday said there were currently no plans to take down the camera housings immediately after they were switched off.The County Hall spokesman said: “We will be decommisioning the safety camera housings over a period of time but at the moment have no definite programme in place. There are no legal issues with the retention of the camera housings and it is believed their presence could continue to act as a deterrent.”Chief Inspector Sean Bell, from Northamptonshire Police’s specialist operations, said a vastly-reduced number of speed checks will be maintained. He said: “Northamptonshire Police will continue to operate a small mobile safety camera service, but all fixed and average speed camera systems will be switched off on March 31.“There will be four mobile camera vans in operation after April 1, and they will be positioned where they are operationally required.”
“There will be four mobile camera vans in operation after April 1, and they will be positioned where they are operationally required.”
I'd rather they kept the fixed cameras and got rid of the mobile ones, at least you know that the fixed ones don't move