Skip to main content

Speed cameras switched back on in Avon and Somerset

Speed cameras across Avon and Somerset in the UK are beginning to be switched back on for the first time since 2011, marking the beginning of a road safety project that will see a total of 29 static cameras become operational again. They were switched off when Government funding was withdrawn for the joint local authority and police Safety Camera Partnership. The 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 the
February 24, 2015 Read time: 3 mins
RSSSpeed cameras across Avon and Somerset in the UK are beginning to be switched back on for the first time since 2011, marking the beginning of a road safety project that will see a total of 29 static cameras become operational again.

They were switched off when Government funding was withdrawn for the joint local authority and police Safety Camera Partnership.

The 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.

113 RedSpeed International is working in conjunction with Avon and Somerset police to switch the cameras back. The first camera has now gone live; the remainder will become operational in due course.

Outside of London this is the first implementation of RedSpeed’s new back office software suite, RedSpeed 360, a suite of software to download, view check, report and export offences to third party evidence processing systems. It is used to setup, configure and tailor RedSpeed Sites as well as retrieve statistical data from RedSpeed sites. One of its key features is that it can manage multiple sites from a single server, and if one site does go down, the remaining sites will continue to function normally.

Avon and Somerset Police’s Road Safety Superintendent 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 per cent 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.”

Related Content

  • IAMRoadSmart: Over a third of police use mobile safety camera vans
    February 2, 2018
    More than a third of UK police forces used mobile safety camera vans to prosecute over 8,000 drivers for not wearing seatbelts and around 1,000 with a mobile phone in their hand in, according to IAM RoadSmart’s freedom of Information request in 2016. It was submitted to 44 police forces which revealed that 16 of them used pictures from the cameras in their vans to pursue these offences as a matter of routine while a further four did so occasionally.
  • Europe’s road safety record suffers as austerity bites hard, traffic police chiefs are told at TISPOL 2017
    March 7, 2018
    Europe’s leading traffic police chiefs are struggling with the challenge of how best to manage the region’s road network in an era of austerity. Things are changing fast, and not for the better, reports Geoff Hadwick. Europe’s road safety record is under threat. Police budgets are being slashed, staff numbers are falling and a long-term trend towards ever-fewer road deaths has ground to a halt. The line on the graph has flat-lined. Does Europe’s road network face a far more dangerous future? Lower and
  • UK Home Office type approval for Truvelo’s D-CAM
    March 21, 2014
    Truvelo UK’s D-CAM digital speed and red light enforcement camera has now gained UK Home Office Type Approval. The camera has been approved for both front and rear photography which, together with choices for the positioning of road markings for secondary speed checks, dramatically increases siting flexibility, as well for as speed on green enforcement. A patented solution which forms a part of the Home Office type approval is the ability to monitor signal phases on newer-generation LED traffic lights.
  • Kuwait opts for Jenoptik enforcement
    January 24, 2014
    Jenoptik’s Traffic Solutions division and its long-term local partner, First Joint Group, are to supply the Kuwait Ministry of Interior with fixed and mobile radar-based speed and red light enforcement systems to upgrade all traffic enforcement equipment in the country. The systems are equipped with the latest digital camera and tracking radar technology Delivery of the order, valued at more than US$2.7 million, is scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2014. Jenoptik traffic safety technology ha