Green waste collection restarting on 4th April
£1 million in Yorkshire speeding fines as spy vans set to multiply
North Yorkshire Police took £1,049,000 last year from 40,377 motorists caught exceeding the speed limit by their camera vans.
Speed van report – click
This paid for the £886,000 costs of running three vans and produced a surplus of £163,000 which the force claims is used for “road safety initiatives”.
The money came from charges for those opting to attend “speed awareness courses”.
5958 motorists were instead fined, with that income going to central government.
There are currently 6 speed vans operating in North Yorkshire and the crime commissioner now wants to increase this number to 12.
The announcement has been made only days before nominations close for the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) elections which are due on 5th May.
The report fails to include up to date figures for 2015/16.
The current PCC says she wants the additional vans to be used in “rural” areas – suggesting that her traditional Tory support is wavering.
She appears to be using her Commissioners office resources to promote a (belated) series of initiatives & meetings. Many may feel this is irregular given the proximity of the “purdah” period (during which election candidates are prevented from using taxpayer’s money to promote themselves).
Speeding clearly is a problem in some areas and the original intention of the vans – which North Yorkshire police dithered over introducing for over 2 years – was to focus on accident blackspots while making occasional visits to locations where residents were anxious about vehicle speeds.
This “reassurance” aspect doesn’t appear to be working very well. Despite requests from local Councillors, several roads in York (Wetherby Road, Green Lane) where vehicles regularly exceed the 30 mph limit never receive a deterrent visit from a camera van.
The new vans will include ANPR cameras which can be used to monitor the movements of vehicles.
NB. The number of people killed or seriously injured on North Yorkshires roads has been stable over recent years. Accidents involving motorcyclists have been high. One of the roads with the worst accident records is the A64.