Whether or not you get caught by a speed camera can come down to where you are in the country rather than how you drive - angry motoring organisations claimed yesterday.

According to new figures released by Transport Minister, Dr Stephen Ladyman, you're far more likely to get snapped by a camera if you live in Mid/South Wales than you are if you live in Hertfordshire. That's because Mid/South Wales has a massive 377 cameras, compared to a tiny 31 in Herts. Or compare West Yorkshire with 166 of the devices, to Surrey with just 42.

Since their introduction in 1992, the number of speed cameras across the UK has grown substantially, as has the number of people being hit with a �60 fixed penalty notice. To understand the growth, it helps to know that in 1995, 200,000 tickets were handed out to speeding motorists, compared to more than 2 million in 2004.

In total, there are 4,313 speed cameras across England and Wales, run by 38 partnerships. *

These figures have predictably sparked a flurry of outrage from motoring organisations who accuse the partnerships of enforcing a speed camera lottery. They believe the system is clearly unfair and inconsistent and needs to be fairly regulated. You may remember a story that MotorTorque reported a few weeks ago: don't get caught on cameraas restrictions in the law that are currently enforced will cease from 2007, this will allow partnerships to hide their speed cameras and place them in locations with no history of road traffic accidents.

So it seems that for some motorists the chances of winning the speed camera lottery seem more and more remote.

Of course there was some cheery news yesterday, with GPS speed camera detection systems being officially declared 100% - click the link to read the story if you missed it GPS speed camera detection systems declared 100% legal

What do you think? Read our comments and add yours in our blog Speed Cameras - Inconsistency Rules

* Source: United Kingdom Parliment , 7 Feb 2006 : Column 1060W