£2.6m 'creamed off' speed fines
8th April, 2004
A LABOUR MP today slammed the Government after discovering Chancellor Gordon Brown creamed off more than £2.6million from speeding Lancashire motorists last year.
Hyndburn MP Greg Pope said he was shocked that the Treasury was making so much money from drivers because the Government had always insisted speed camera fines went to fund road safety.
Now he is demanding the Treasury pay the cash back to police in the county - one of the country's speed camera hot spots with 320 fixed sites - to tackle burglars, thugs and other criminals.
Today, Conservative shadow transport secretary Damian Green said: "Everybody in Lancashire who cares about road safety is being ripped off by Gordon Brown. We have been warning about this stealth tax for months and it's welcome to see a Labour MP has now finally recognised the problem."
An 87-year-old motorist banned from driving for six months for committing four speeding offences in three years today backed Mr Pope.
Bill Thornton, of Hawkswood Gardens, Brierfield, said: "Speeding fines are just another way to tax motorists."
But Burnley MP Peter Pike said: "I would rather face 10 angry motorists who have been issued with fines that face one grieving parent who lost a child because somebody was going over the speed limit..........
[So how many of the people fined ever have, or ever will, be responsible for such parents grief.
In case he hasn't noticed, the cause is either people who the cameras can't police.
Or the parents themselves!]
........Mr Pope was himself caught on a speed camera and believes it has improved his driving.
But recently he has been quizzing the Government in Parliament about speed cameras and the money generated from them.
Initially Parliamentary Answers implied the income had been recycled into maintenance of cameras and other road safety activities.
Now he has discovered there is a surplus of at least £2.6million a year from Lancashire which goes direct to the Treasury.
Mr Pope said: "Some people think that the cameras are essentially a tax on motorists and it would appear that they are right.
"I have discovered that the estimated income from speed cameras in Lancashire in 2003/4 is £7.2million.
From:
http://www.thisisblackburn.co.uk/lancashire/accrington/news/NEWSACC2.html