You are in: Safety cameras

Background

Essex was one of the eight pilot areas in the UK to create a Safety Camera Partnership and participate in the Government's two-year cost recovery trial between April 2000 and March 2002.

As a result of the success of the pilot, the National Safety Camera Programme was rolled out across the country.

The Essex Safety Camera Partnership (ESCP) worked within Department for Transport rules and guidelines for safety camera enforcement and was funded through a cost recovery system. This system allowed the ESCP to recover the costs relating to safety cameras, from speed and red-light camera fixed penalties.

On 15 December 2005, the Secretary of State for Transport announced changes in relation to safety cameras. Click here to read the announcement.

Safety camera enforcement in Essex, Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock is now operated by the Casualty Reduction Partnership.

Local authorities now receive additional funding for road safety through the Local Transport Plan road safety grant, which they can spend on safety camera enforcement or any other road safety measure according to local priorities. All fine income from safety cameras now goes directly to HM Treasury.

This ensures that safety cameras can be integrated into wider road safety. It also provides greater flexibility to implement whichever locally agreed mix of road safety measures are necessary to have the greatest contribution to reducing road casualties.

The Casualty Reduction Partnership aims to make speeding socially unacceptable - and safety cameras have an important role to play in achieving this objective.