SMART MOTORWAY FINES RAISE £8m
THOUSANDS OF DRIVERS CAUGHT OUT BY CAMERAS
SPEEDING fines worth more than £8m have been dished out during the three-and-a-half years of Greater Manchester’s smart motorway upgrade, the M.E.N. can reveal.
Some 80,642 fixed penalty notices have been issued on a 17-mile stretch in February 2015, with drivers who were caught out by the 50mph limit handed three penalty points on their licence, as well as a minimum £100 fine.
It means motorists snared by the temporary average speed traps between junction 8 of the M60 at Sale and junction 20 of the M62 at Rochdale have paid fines well in excess of £8m in less than four years.
All the cash goes to the ‘Consolidated Fund,’ the government’s pot from which the nation’s day-today bills are paid.
The news has left some drivers fuming.
Celebrity lawyer Nick Freeman, dubbed Mr Loophole for his record in helping famous clients dodge motoring offences, told the M.E.N.: “It’s an astonishingly high amount of money which will lead motorists to believe those cameras are really in situ because they are fiscally inspired. It also goes to show that they are not having a positive effect on rates of speeding offences, which should be the main purpose of the exercise.
“There’s an accident every single day and congestion is absolutely horrendous.
“These figures beggar belief. They contribute to huge levels of stress for people who use the motorway and experience it on a daily basis.
“The lanes are dangerously narrow and the road surface is of an appalling quality. You can hardly hear yourself think, let alone speak.
“And the length of the project is a total joke. You rarely see anybody working.
“It should have been a 24/7 project, through the day and through the night, to get the job done instead of taking three-and-a-half years.”
The temporary cameras were installed in November 2015, but they were only turned on in February of the following year because of a wrangle over the wording of the ‘traffic regulation order,’ which gave legal force to the speed limit.
After the £208m upgrade, which was due to be completed by autumn last year, was declared complete earlier this month, the M.E.N. used Freedom of Information legislation to request the number of fixed penalty notices handed out during the upgrade from Greater Manchester Police.
The force revealed 80,642 notices had been handed out. Some 30,748 were issued in 2015, followed by 28,203 in 2016 and 20,277 in 2017.
Only 1,414 fixed penalty notices have been handed out so far this year as the project reached an end – and speed restrictions were lifted on stretches of the motorway.
Almost 300 people worked on the project at its peak, with speed cameras installed to ensure their
safety as well as the safety of motorists.
Posters were erected around the motorway featuring the pictures of children in hard hats with the words ‘my daddy works here’ in an effort to make drivers take care through the road works. Some drivers ignored the cones and drove through restricted areas.
In 2016, footage was released which showed one reckless driver ignoring the overnight slip road closure at junction 11 for Eccles, near Barton Bridge, and taking a shortcut before being chased by staff.
Asked about the number of fines, a spokesperson for Highways England said: “Over 180,000 drivers a day are now benefitting from the improvements we’ve made to the M60 and M62. We needed a temporary 50mph speed limit while the upgrade was taking place for the safety of drivers and our workers, and are pleased that the vast majority of drivers obeyed the limit. We would also like to remind drivers that cameras will remain in place to enforce the new variable speed limits, which are designed to keep traffic flowing smoothly and prevent collisions and tailbacks caused by sudden braking.”