Good for Oxfordshire CCC and its abolition of speed cameras

Oxfordshire County Council could be turning off all its speed cameras in am effort to save money after Labour's mismanagement of the country.

Naturally, this has brought out the "road safety campaigners" in a hot flush. Ellen Booth, a campaigns officer for road safety group Brake, said, "It would be a disaster. It would be especially hard to justify the idea that all speed cameras should be turned off. Speed cameras are a really cost effective way of managing speed, which is one of the biggest issues on our roads. To get rid of them would be a backward step and we would really be risking people's lives."

Brake claims it exists to "stop the carnage" - emotive words indeed and more appropriately used when describing a battle. However, it does seem to confirm that Brake believes that there is indeed a war on motorists.

It would be impolite to say that "campaigns officer" Miss Booth is talking utter cobblers but she is. What does she mean "speed... is one of the biggest issues on our roads"? It is easy to say that speed kills which is presumably what she is talking about. It doesn't - inappropriate speed kills and most accidents are caused by people not paying attention to where they are going not because they are driving too fast.

Swindon turned off its fixed point speed cameras and has seen no change in serious accidents or deaths on its roads.

There is no evidence that speed cameras do anything except raise revenue.