Cameras 'will slow blackspot motorists'

HI-TECH speed cameras could be put along Ramsey Forty Foot in a bid to cut accidents.

Five people have died on the road since December and 1,600 people signed a petition demanding Cambridgeshire County Council take action to make it safe.

The suggestion of speed cameras was put forward during a debate on the petition at Shire Hall. Councillors also said drivers needed to be better educated.

Officers are currently working on a report to the council's cabinet about what can be done.

Coun Michael Ogden said:

"Speed is the biggest problem and the way to beat this is speed cameras."

Others proposed more sophisticated technology which would enable police to time how long it takes drivers to get through the stretch.

Coun Geoffrey Harper, who represents Forty Foot, said:

"This road is five miles long, very straight and exposed, with the river on one side and farmland on the other.

One of the other problems with it is the success the county council had resurfacing the road, making it easier to go faster.

"The only way to deal with this is cameras. We should go one step further, if the technology is possible, to time people's speed along that road."

Coun John Reynolds agreed, but added there were similar roads across Cambridgeshire and the council had to decide what its priorities were.

He said: "Officers are investigating a range of issues and I'd like to thank all the members of the public who have written in with suggestions.

Some have been looked at previously and are being looked at again.

"There's a scheme on the M11 called SPECS which photographs every vehicle going through, checks their speed and again going out. If you exceed the limit you get a nice little letter. It works very well but it is very expensive.

"There are 47 miles of similar roads in the county and we represent the whole county and there are lots of issues we have to be addressing."

Jose Marmeleria, Carlos De Oliveira and Cidalina Oliveira drowned in the early hours of February 1 after their car spun into a ditch as they were travelling to work at an onion factory in Chatteris.

Their deaths came just two months after father and son Dean and Jordan Hawes, of Hull Way, Chatteris, were killed in an accident on the same road.


30 March 2006