LARSOA welcomes new safety camera flexibility

Greater flexibility about where to site safety cameras should help save more lives and prevent more serious injuries according to LARSOA.

The Local Authority Road Safety Officers' Association has welcomed the move by government to give councils more freedom to choose where to site safety cameras in their areas from April 1.

From this date the National Road Safety Camera Programme comes to an end and funding arrangements for cameras will be integrated into the wider road safety delivery programme for each local authority in England and Wales.

The move means local authority road safety officers, police and other local partners will have greater flexibility to decide what the road safety budget should be spent on. This will allow them to implement the mix of road safety measures in their area which is best suited to reducing road casualties.

Simon Ettinghausen, chair of LARSOA, says this will mean local authorities can respond to particular problems in their area: "No longer will councils have to prove that an area is an accident hotspot before they can install a safety camera. It will allow local authorities, in partnership with the police and other organisations to use cameras as part of other road safety measures and traffic management."

He adds: "It will also mean greater flexibility to respond to local concerns as and when they arise. There has been a great deal of criticism from motorists about the use of cameras but the independent four year evaluation report of the National Road Safety Camera Programme showed a 42% reduction in death and serious injury and a 22% reduction in personal injury collisions at camera sites.

"Clearly speed cameras and red light cameras which deter drivers from jumping through red traffic lights, are proven casualty reduction measures and LARSOA supports their use and the flexibility to use them applying specific local knowledge. Areas which were not one of the 38 to have a safety camera partnership will now be able to access funding to use them."

It is the intention of the Department for Transport that while local authorities will have greater flexibility to manage road safety, the approach of using cameras at locations where excessive speed is a problem will continue.

ABOUT LARSOA

LARSOA is a national road safety organisation representing road safety officers (RSOs) employed in local government across the UK.

LARSOA represents 185 of the 200 eligible local authorities across the UK, assisting RSOs to fulfil their statutory role to reduce the number and severity of road casualties through education, training and publicity programmes.

LARSOA publishes an up-to-date round-up of road safety news from across the UK on its website www.larsoa.org.uk .

LARSOA also aims to influence national debate - government policy and action together with public opinion. The association works to achieve national recognition for road safety issues, commissions research into behaviour which contributes to road collisions and develops national road safety campaigns.

The association assists in identifying achievable national targets to reduce the number of collisions on the country's roads.