Morning:
0°c
Harry Redknapp said the Football Association should make the right decision "for the country" when it appoints the next England manager, amid growing clamour for him to get the job
More...
Highway robbery: How speeding fines have quadrupled to £200 a MINUTE under Labour
Last updated at 00:29am on 05.08.08
Home Office figures reveal 4,850 speeding tickets are issued a day
Revenue from speeding tickets has almost quadrupled to £200 a minute since Labour came to power.
The increase has coincided with a massive expansion in the number of speed cameras
Home Office figures reveal that 1.8million tickets are being issued each year, or 4,850 a day. In 1997, only 713,000 fixed penalty notices were handed to drivers.
This is an increase of 150 per cent in only a decade, and it has been compounded by an increase in the value of fines - from £40 to £ 60 - in 2000.
As a result, the total amount of cash raised has rocketed from £28.5million a decade ago to £106.4million in 2006, the period covered by the latest figures.
Tory police reform spokesman David Ruffley, who obtained the data, accused ministers of treating motorists like 'cash cows'.
Mr Ruffley said: 'The number of tickets issued for speeding has increased 150 per cent under Labour.
'Coupled with an increase in the basic speeding fine, this means speeding tickets are now raising over £100 million a year for the Government.
'Ministers need to tell us what they are doing with this £100million a year taken from motorists.
'How much is actually put back into practical road safety that does not involve speed cameras?
'Ministers' failure to answer that question confirms the view that for this Government the British motorist is "a nice little earner".
'Is Labour using speeding tickets just to raise revenue rather than making our roads safer?
'Using speed cameras as a cash cow undermines public confidence. The Government needs to rethink ways of improving road safety, including cracking down on uninsured drivers.'
The huge hike in the number of motorists being trapped is a direct result of an increase in the number of cameras. Britain is officially the speed camera capital of Europe.
There are 5,562 roadside speed cameras, compared with 1,935 as recently as 2000. Over the same period, mobile speed traps have increased from just 173 to 2,373.
Following a recent Government U-turn, speed-camera partnerships - comprising councils, police and the courts - no longer receive a penny from cameras.
Instead, the millions generated go directly into Treasury coffers. The Government then makes road safety grants to local councils.
The figures will stoke controversy at a time when Labour is seeking to clobber 13million motorists with up to £2billion in green vehicle excise duty (VED) taxes.
The changes, which apply to more-polluting cars purchased since 2001, will increase some road tax bills from £210 to £430.
Message: Graffiti sprayed on a speed camera sign in Purfleet
Matthew Elliott of the TaxPayers' Alliance said: 'It's appalling that motorists who already pay huge amounts in VED and petrol tax are being stung yet again by the aggressive growth of the speed camera industry.
'The law is discredited and devalued when politicians use it more as a way of making money rather than fighting crime.'
Over the ten-year period since Labour won power, there were increases in the number of speeding fines in 40 out of the 43 police forces in England and Wales.
In Nottinghamshire, there has been a nine-fold increase, from 4,625 fines in 1997 to 42,916 fines in 2006. In Warwickshire, the number has increased 16-fold, from 1,857 fines in 1997 to 30,316 in 2006.
Mr Ruffley's probing of the first ten years of Labour rule also shows the number of fines for speeding imposed by magistrates increased by 16 per cent - from 130,605 in 1997 to 152,461 in 2006.
These fines are up to £1,000 each, raising millions more in revenue.
But separate figures seen by the Daily Mail show there were fewer prosecutions last year in two of the main categories which worry the public.
Dangerous driving cases fell by 1,100 to 7,400 and prosecutions for driving while drunk or on drugs were down from 103,500 to 101,400.
Despite the huge increase in speeding fines, Britain's record for reducing accidents is much worse than other countries.
The European Transport Safety Council says that between 2001 and 2005 there was a mere seven per cent reduction in the number of road deaths in Britain compared with a 25 per cent drop in Sweden and the Netherlands and 35 per cent in France.
Experts warn that too much emphasis is now placed on using cameras to trap motorists, at the expense of old-fashioned policing by officers in cars.
A Department for Transport spokesman said: 'Safety cameras are there to save lives, not make money.
'Independent research shows there are 1,745 fewer deaths and serious injuries at camera sites each year.'
He added that some of the revenue came from police-issued tickets, not cameras.
Reader views (16)
Regrettably, i managed to get 2 speeding tickets this year both for being 11% over the limit. Its a fair cop, but my insurance company DID NOT raise my premuium. If insurance companies assess risk, then they clearly don't believe that speeding increases risk unless it is at a level to get a ban.
To me that is proof that speed cameras and speed limit reductions are not done to aid road safety when the most risk adverse organisations in the country do not see speed as increased risk
- Lynd, Cheltenham, 13/03/2009 21:01
Report abuse
So now it's the ruling parties fault that WE fail to see these brightly coloured speed cameras and end up paying for OUR lack of observation huh?
- Kevo, E. Yorks UK, 02/02/2009 13:04
Report abuse
Well, the powers that be have to get the extra cash from somewhere (to pay for all of those buy-offs used to garner support from financial non-contributors to society).
- Rogan, Irving, 05/08/2008 23:29
Report abuse
The fines are for UK drivers not foreign ones lets remember, never has a government turned a blind eye to foreign criminals more than this one.
- P I Staker, london, 05/08/2008 22:32
Report abuse
Speed kills. If people are speeding and they get caught, they need to take responsibilty for that and not whine on!
- Bill Smith, Fort Myers, Florida, USA, 05/08/2008 21:12
Report abuse
It is great. You can speed and drive like a total lunatic on the vast majority of roads because there are no traffic police left. You only have to slow down to go past the cameras. Hooray for road safety!
- Oli, London, 05/08/2008 15:22
Report abuse
Not a single life saved, not a single uninsured driver caught, not a single reckless driver caught, not a single dangerous driver caught, not a single driver of a stolen vehicle caught.
Most speeding fines are earned in areas where there have been no accidents or speeding is not the sole reason for accidents. I suppose the exception is the M4, some wishing to commit suicide jumped of a bridge into the path of the traffic, the area is now deemed an accident black spot.
Speed cameras are a clumsy answer to a serious problem and as such end up just as revenue earners.
- Ian, Reading, England, 05/08/2008 14:44
Report abuse
@ Austen, it is simple, points ARE issued, out of all proportion to the 'problem'.
@ Bek, it is very simple, the interpretations of the rules and regulations frequently bears little relation to common sense, are often petty, trivial and are used to maximise profit and fund a pointless bureaucracy at the expense of hard working and industrious people.
- Frank H., London., 05/08/2008 13:58
Report abuse
It's not a party political thing. Take Surrey: £213K to £2.3m over ten years - and as true blue as councils come. And, yes, I was one of their 'victims' (own fault, not paying enough attention)
- Tonyb, Twickenham, UK, 05/08/2008 12:34
Report abuse
What exactly are they spending this money on? If it was going to finance more traffic police I could understand it but it seems to be filtered off into God knows what.
- Ray Dartrap, London, 05/08/2008 10:42
Report abuse
So what exactly is the point that you're trying to make here?
Is it . . .
[1] that New Labour have "failed yet again" and have been incapable of effectively enforcing the Highway Code and traffic speeds?
or is it
[2] that Britain is a nation of dangerous, delinquent cavalier vehicle drivers who show little, if any, regard for road speed and/or the safety of fellow drivers and/or pedestrians?
- Fraser, Telford Park, 05/08/2008 09:40
Report abuse
It's very simple, don't break the law by driving too fast and you won't pay the fine.
- Bek, Hampshire, 05/08/2008 09:18
Report abuse
Brownie just needed to get money from somewhere for him and his merry men to pay for their first class tickets and their mortgages
- Aria, South London, 05/08/2008 09:16
Report abuse
And the money keeps rolling in.
Mind you it has to. New Labour have been found with their hands in our pockets too often.
Pity the motorist and the raft of taxes they encounter, he will most certainly become the 'poor motorist'.
- J R J, Glen Vine, 05/08/2008 08:53
Report abuse
Simple way to fix this alleged problem - issue penalty points to offenders, not fines.
- Austen, London, 05/08/2008 08:30
Report abuse
The fines are a disgrace, the roads are a disgrace, and this government is a disgrace.
How long do we have to wait before we can vote them out?
- Mr S.Port, London, 05/08/2008 03:26
Report abuse
