A reader has brought this link to my attention. It concerns two new speed cameras in Peterborough, which have netted £54,000 in fines in their first 10 days of service.
Speed Camera Sign
Installed on the A1139 Frank Perkins Parkway, these cameras are allegedly there to “protect the workforce” while roadworks are carried out. The Police have commented that they will be putting up more signs to warn motorists of the amended limit. That’s good of them, isn’t it?
You can’t help wonder why they didn’t do it the right way round, and put the signs up first.
The story points out that at the current rate of entrapment these two cameras will overtake the current record-holding snap-happy camera on the M11 in Essex – which already catches 9,000 speeders each year. It nets around £500,000 in fines.
By how much? Well, they calculate that these two will manage almost double that… in half the time! So nearly £2,000,000 extra income for someone out there.
I should point out that I am a great believer in the principle that if you don’t speed, you don’t get caught by speed cameras. But this appears to be a cynical attempt to catch people out by having moved the goalposts without informing anyone.
Temporary and variable speed limits are a bloody nuisance, especially when they stay in force when no one is working (and if it’s anything like roadworks carried out by Nottinghamshire County Council, that’s anytime before 11am and anytime after 3pm).