‘We have never lost a court case because of faulty equipment’

PRESSURE is mounting for certificates proving that Flintshire’s speed cameras are working properly to be made public.

Flintshire has the highest number of fixed speed cameras in North Wales, nine, and the cameras are calibrated every 12 months to ensure they are working correctly.

But it emerged in a meeting between councillors and North Wales Police Chief Constable Richard Brunstrom on Tuesday that unlike other local authorities, Arrive Alive in Flintshire does not publish the certificates on its website.

During the meeting Connah’s Quay Cllr, Arthur Hannah, said the certificates should be made available to the public to avoid any dispute.

“If you get a speeding ticket and you don’t know if the camera has been calibrated properly, there could be a doubt,” he said.

Mr Brunstrom hit back and said: “That’s nonsense. We have never lost a court case because of faulty equipment. Our equipment is bombproof. I am tired of getting ludicrous comments from people that they haven’t broken the law because speed cameras are dodgy.”

But Alyn and Deeside MP Mark Tami has now written to Mr Brunstrom asking for the certificates to be published on the website to eliminate any doubts.

The letter reads: “From previous correspondence I have had relating to calibration certificates, Arrive Alive regularly failed to upload up-to-date documents to the website, in spite of the fact that such certificates can form the basis of a defence case against notification of intended prosecution.”

Mr Brunstrom’s comments were backed today by the AA Motoring Trust, who said speed cameras were “99.9% reliable.”

Andrew Howard, head of road safety, said: “I would say to anyone who called me and said ‘I’ve been caught by a speed camera – it must be duff’ that it probably wasn’t, and that they should think long and hard before contesting it in court.

“The fixed cameras are 99.9% reliable. The errors come when humans interface with the pictures and make mistakes.”