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15
Jul
Speed camera vans not there to ‘maximise revenue’, says chief constable
Speed camera vans are not “deployed to maximise revenue”, the chief constable of North Yorkshire Police has said.
Tim Forber told an online meeting on road safety, which was chaired by the county's deputy mayor for policing, Jo Coles, that the vans were put in place to keep the public safe.
North Yorkshire Police has 12 mobile speed vans which it uses across the county.
During today’s meeting, Ms Coles asked Mr Forber what assurances he could give people about the purpose of the speed camera vans and what the revenue raised from them is spent on.
Mr Forber said:
I’ve been very clear, we are not deploying those camera vans to maximise revenue in any way. They are deployed purely to reduce speeding offences which we know are a primary cause of serious collisions in the county.
I cannot be any clearer than that and I have been very clear internally. That is why we deploy them. We deploy them on the basis of risk and the impact they can have to reduce casualties.
Mr Forber added that the revenue which is made from camera vans goes towards funding the deployment of the cameras and speeding education programmes.
He said:
They do not go towards funding broader policing. They don’t fund police officers on a Saturday night in York.
In January and February this year, force statistics show vans were in place at 96 locations in the Harrogate district, including on the A59 near Blubberhouses, junction 48 of the A1(M) near Boroughbridge and the A658 at North Rigton.
Tim Forber, chief constable of North Yorkshire Police.
But Mr Forber said in May this year that it was time to consider introducing average speed cameras and fixed speed cameras to the road network.
He said North Yorkshire was the only county he had worked in as a police officer where no fixed cameras were in place.
Mr Forber added that introducing the technology would help to reduce deaths on North Yorkshire’s road network.
Meanwhile, North Yorkshire Police is still investigating vandalism to the first ever fixed speed camera in the county on the A64 Sherburn High Street.
The force said both the camera and the lamp post it was based on were “deliberately vandalised” hours after it was installed on Monday, June 30.
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