£600k f ines from every smart M-way camera
Drivers’ fury as police t ake on extra st aff to cope with surge in speeding tickets
EVERY camera on new ‘smart’ sections of motorway is expected to rack up £600,000 in fines each year, according to road chiefs.
Errant drivers are given £ 100 fines and three penalty points under the controversial system.
So many extra motorists are predicted to be hit by punishments that police are hiring more staff to deal with the expected workload.
One of Britain’s biggest police forces, Thames Valley, is taking on an extra 15 civilian employees to process all the fines expected when Highways England switches on smart sections of the M4 and M40 later this year.
It has prompted concerns that drivers are being used as ‘ cash cows’ under the new system – which uses variable speed limits and the hard shoulder as an extra lane during busy periods to control traffic and improve safety.
There have already been calls for smart motorways to be scrapped after four people were killed on one stretch of the M1 because there was no safe place to stop.
AA president Edmund King said: ‘If more resources were put into making the gantry signs accurate and the variable speeds right for the conditions, you might not need more resources for enforcement.
‘Accurate technology and more consistent and appropriate speed limits would actually reduce the levels of fines.
‘Any “income” from fines should go into making these roads safer by sorting technology and doubling the number of lay-bys.’ The huge numbers expected to be caught by the automatic cameras – either for breaking the speed limit or straying into lanes that have been temporarily closed with a red ‘X’ gantry sign – are revealed in a report by Thames Valley police.
It said of the smart motorways which will be introduced later in the year: ‘It is anticipated that the M40 and M4 will each capture 30,000 infringements per year. The national equation used by Highways England has shown that an i ncrease of 15 [ staff] will be required to deal with the 500 capt ures per camera per month, funded by Highways England.’
A Highways England spokesman said: ‘There are around 150 speed camera sites on smart motorways; normally one between each junction. They are clearly signed and are bright yellow for visibility. The vast majority of drivers on smart motorways drive within the speed limit.’ There are already more than 200 miles of smart motorway in the UK, including London, Birmingham and the North.
Richard Goddard, of the Campaign For Safer Roadside Rescue And Recovery, said last night: ‘I think the motoring public will be flabbergasted and shocked to see the scale of the cash cow these smart motorways have become.
‘We fervently believe they are not safe. The refuge areas are too far apart. Motorists face the petrifying risk of breaking down in a live lane, many hundreds of yards from a refuge area with traffic barrelling down behind them. At the very least, every penny generated by these cameras should be ploughed back into making these roads safer.’