SPEEDING fines issued on Cumbria's roads have risen by 753 per cent since speed cameras were introduced in 2003, netting millions of pounds for the Government.

Figures obtained by The Westmorland Gazette under the Freedom of Information Act have revealed a sharp increase in the number of speeding tickets issued.

Yet despite a falling number of injuries on the roads, deaths in road traffic accidents have risen.

In 2002, Cumbria Constabulary issued 5,152 speeding tickets, compared to 34,622 in 2003 when speed cameras were introduced, rising again to 38,799 in 2004. But these figures do not include drivers caught by the county's four fixed cameras, which were only introduced this year.

If all the motorists paid the mandatory £60 fine, the speed cameras would have earned £2,327,940 for the Treasury, less the costs of operating the cameras.

There are a total of 51 mobile and fixed camera sites in Cumbria, at locations including the A591 at Ings; the A6, Shap Road, Kendal; A65 at Devil's Bridge, Kirkby Lonsdale; and M6 between junctions 36 and 40.

Camera operators' project manager Steve Callaghan defended the rise in tickets issued, saying the cameras had a positive effect on the number of people injured on the county's roads, despite not reducing the number of deaths.

However, he said that regardless of how many tickets were issued, motorists still needed to change their driving.

In June, The Westmorland Gazette submitted five questions under the FOI Act relating to speed cameras two of which were answered.

Cumbria Safety Cameras (CSC) - the operating arm of the Cumbria Road Casualty Reduction Partnership that comprises Cumbria County Council, Cumbria Constabulary, the Highways Agency and Cumbria Magistrates Services - refused to tell us: l The amount of money raised by each camera in Cumbria; l The number of motorists caught speeding by each of the individual cameras; and l Information about the accidents used to justify the placing of the first fixed speed cameras in South Lakeland at Ings.

The reasons given for refusal were that the information was likely to prejudice law enforcement, and because some data contained personal information.

Cumbria Safety Cameras data analyst Jan Sjorup said with so many cars on the roads one of the main concerns was to reduce the number of casualties.

He said: "We would rather do it through education and through the media but if no one wants to listen we have got the cameras."

Independent road safety expert Paul Smith, who has set up the Safe Speed campaign, was disgusted at the huge leap in speeding tickets being issued and said using speed cameras could, in fact, distract drivers.

"We must get these dangerous cameras off our roads right now people are dying because of them," he said.

"The term safety camera' will go down in history as a sick joke."

Andrew Howard, head of road safety at the AA Motoring Trust, the group created by the AA to champion the interests and safety of Britain's road users, said it was fairer to look at serious injury statistics to measure the success of speed cameras, but warned that public acceptance of the roadside enforcers was on the decline.

Meanwhile, a report published this week by Cumbria Constabulary said young drivers were involved in almost half the deaths on Cumbria's roads.

"To call this state of affairs a bloodbath may seem to be overly dramatic, but the figures speak for themselves," said CSC communications manager Kevin Tea.

"There is only so much that the police and ourselves can achieve and we must start to look at how other influences can be brought into play to reduce this carnage."

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