Mystery Attacker Wages War On Speed Cameras

A mysterious person who has presumably fallen foul of Speed Cameras at some point recently has been on the attack in Kent, armed with stickers with high tack glue to cover the lenses!

What I find interesting (apart from the inherent comedy value (is that just me?)) is the fact that the Camera Partnerships spokesperson seems to blatantly lie on two points:

1) That they don’t have the resources to take the stickers off.

OK, I don’t know that this is a lie but I am pretty sure that it’s not true. We have the resources, and I can assure you, they have a lot more money to play with than we do!

I do believe they are going for the public sympathy vote. Can’t see that one working some how!

2) That the speed cameras are placed where people have been killed or seriously injured.

This has been proven time and time again to simply not be true (in the vast majority of cases).

I would be interested to know whether Katherine Barrett actually believes what she is saying, or is just towing the official propaganda line.

She was also keen to point out that the “Vandal” faces jail if caught.

I’ll stick my neck on the line here and say that personally I hope they don’t!

Let me know your thoughts below.

All the best,

Adam

82 comments on “Mystery Attacker Wages War On Speed Cameras”

  1. I think this site reflects our feelings best….not that anyone would condone such politically incorrect behaviour!

    speedcam(dot)co(dot)uk/gatso2.htm

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    • At least by using stickers he is not vandalising or causing any damage to the camera and I think although it may cause some frustration costs for them, its a great way of demonstrating without damage! (even tho we would all like to see them all distroyed).

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  2. This is, has and always will be a revenue raiser. They’re placed exactly where we are likely to inadvertently go over the limit. I just wish they would come out with the truth for once.

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  3. I think this is a great way of demonstrating and raising a nation wide interest in something which I think we all now just simply put up with yet strongly disagree with but cant do anything about! (well maybe we have found a way now!) I’d like to know where we can get these stickers from and help this guy with his demonstration!

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  4. Its great that the speed cameras are being attacked. Personally I am overjoyed with this as I am all in favour of destroying them/attacking them in any manner necessary to eradicate their useless and distasteful presence. They DO NOT prevent accidents or save lives as the safety camera partnerships want us to believe…they are a 21st century source of revenue to desperate councils. Good luck to the person or persons who did the sticker trick. Nice one son. May you go safely on your way…and be careful…they might rig up secret roadside cameras to find you….and to Katherine Barrett….wake up love and smell the coffee dot com. We ain’t happy. Take em down…or we will.

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  5. They always spout the old chestnut that it’s not a revenue raiser.
    Back in the early half of the 2000’s average speed cameras were placed the length of Nottinghams ring road. This had the immediate effect of everyone keeping to the 40mph speed limit, great success everyone cried! TWO YEARS LATER THEY WERE WIRED UP! I know this for sure as I drove that way twice a day and being in the construction trade, knew exactly why they were excavating and laying ducting between them! So if they worked when not live…..why bother?

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  6. You can only be “perverting the course of justice” after a crime is committed. The only crime that would have been committed is sticking a piece of paper on a public object. eg a lampost, fly posting.

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  7. It’s quite interesting while driving along and seeing
    Numerous oncoming vehicles flashing other drivers
    To make them aware of random sped cameras this
    In itself shows general public opinion towards sneaky
    Set ups , I’m quite sure the vast majority of people would like to see the abolition of speed cameras I know of a number of accidents actually caused by last minute observation of a speed camera one of these resulting in a fatality , pity the person dies not possess some dr who skills , and do the sticker thing to them all .

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  8. What really gets my goat is these camera’s are paid for by the tax payer of this unjust country in order to try and extort even more money out of our pockets. I say who ever it was, give him a really big pat on the back, good on you!

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  9. That is brilliant well done you. If everyone done this then I think councils would soon get the message. A few years back a friend of mine helped a few motorists, He stuck a placard on a bit of 4×2 and stuck it in the ground just around the corner from a mobile camera van and then legged it You guessed it the placard read ‘SPEED CAMERA VAN AROUND THE CORNER’ They sat there for over an hour wondering why they couldn’t catch anyone and soon gave up, the pole was later removed by the police. Laughed for a week after that

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  10. The van mounted cameras are a different problem. My next plan is to wrench the door open and send in our 60Kg Akita to evict the occupants…..

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  11. I don’t understand the fuss at all. How hard is it to stick to the speed limit and what justification does anyone have for going over it?
    I would prefer far more police doing the enforcement though, the cameras are a joke. Anyone being so dimwitted as to be caught by one really shouldn’t be driving.

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  12. If the hero concerned has just paced something a simple as a “post it” note over te lens, then how can he be done for criminal damage?

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  13. Agree with Roy – only crime is “fly posting”. All praise to this guy and I hope he goes onto “higher” things – like doing similar to those bloody Average speed “yellow vultures” cameras. But seriously if we want to control speed there are better ways without fining the motorist. One example I have seen in Portugal are “Velocity Controlled areas”. Basically if speed needs to be reduced along a (small) stretch of road (school/dodgy junction or whatever) a traffic light with sensor is placed and if it appears you are going to fast approaching said area the lights change to Red (only on your side) and you have to stop. If you adhere to speed limit light stays green. No fines and 6 points here. (Unless you are caught going through a red light) Far more effective, and cost efficient and sensible (in my opinion) all round. Of course you may always get the “A hole” who will risk ignoring lights.

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    • “…therein lies anarchy” – Peter, don’t be too worried about that. Law (one fix for everyone) is vastly over-rated. Consider the extreme case, murder. What precisely is the use of a law against murder?

      We all know to kill someone, except in self defence, is morally wrong; there’s a powerful internal taboo against it (conscience, maybe.) Who contemplates violating that, taking the life of a fellow human being, but then pauses and says to himself “no, wait, that would be illegal, so I’ll not do it.” The notion is absurd.

      Worse: if and when the killer is caught and convicted, count what happens. He is put in a cage and left to rot. His victim is beyond help, and the victim’s family is ignored. The cost of the process, including imprisonment, is loaded on to the taxpayer, so creating a new class of victims. Lawyers are the only winners.

      As I see it, the entire legal system needs replacement from top to bottom; instead of law and punishment, it would be based on liberty and restitution. In a literal sense (an-archy being no-ruler) that’s anarchy, and it would be a huge improvement.

      Oh by the way, the givers of law (government) are the ones withby far the most blood on their hands. Take a look!

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  14. We should condemn someone who takes the law into their own hands, therein lies anarchy. Which law next? If you don’t like the law, stick to argument and democratic means.

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  15. Perhaps speed cameras were at some point there to prevent accidents however at some point they most definitely did crossover to becoming a revenue generation machine. That is why normal, respectable, law abiding citizens despise them. Because they are unfair and simply a tax on the motorist.

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  16. That the speed cameras are placed where people have been killed or seriously injured.

    Around the corner form my home there is a Gatso camera on a stretch of 30mph limit road where people used to travel at 35/38mph. I’ve lived in the area for 36 years and never heard of a fatality or serious injury on the road. There is a nursing home close to the camera so i suppose they include the number of elderly that die in the nursing home in their road safety campaign.

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  17. “…stickers with high tack glue to cover the lenses” – brilliant! Has this heroic pioneer designed a simple, fast way to get the job done and depart before being detected?

    Climbing a stepladder or a car roof takes time, increases exposure. Creative thinking on that point could mobilise hundreds, and cripple thousands of the yellow monsters overnight.

    Then, even if a few were caught in the act, you might come to the rescue with a legal defence package that would… glue up the court system for years.

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  18. According to wikipedia, The 30 mph speed limit in built-up areas was introduced in 1930. Back in a time when the stopping distance of cars was measured in light years, cars today probably stop in 10% the distance so why are they reducing the limits on OUR roads more and more?

    30’s are becoming 20’s
    40’s are becoming 30’s
    National speed limits are becoming 50’s
    M25 often goes from 70 down to 30…..and they switch on the overhead camera’s when they on the variable limit

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  19. I have recently got caught by a mobile unit on A358 Henlade Taunton were the unit sits in layby outside private residents bungalows on downward gradient on the wrong side of the road, between May2011 & April2012 over 5.336 drivers where caught by this unit. this Avon and somerset police force they are a law on themselves? this unit is illegaly parked outside the bungalow for which they use the name of it Limbrey!!! the camerapartship ended last year but ASp kept on their old staff who were known to park illegaly as there is a old image of their unit parked outside the then leader of TDBC private residents home and it was on a upward gradient it should have been some 800 meters up the road!this unit on the A358 Henlade should have more than stickers on it someone that is brave enough to get close to it should take pictures of it & post them on every speed camera web site! I am taken a speed awareness course at cost of £95 to be re-educated after 30+ years of driving and it my first time to be caught?

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  20. There was no actual offence as there was no criminal damage, though an old CD over the lense is a more elegant way of disabling a camera. You cannot condone any crime, even speeding, but when roads are unclearly marked or have changing limits with cameras placed at the changes from higher to lower, etc. etc. you know something is wrong, and that is when our sense of injustice kicks in.

    Having been involved in the design of Exhibition Road in London, which is a fantastic free for all that works, one of the considerations was traffic lights to switch to red if someone goes too fast – unbelievably effective. This is proper traffic control, but this means no revenue whilst having to spend money on making a road safer. Councils are doing us all a disservice with their rhetoric on this matter. They do not want to spend the necessary money and ultimately it is they who have blood on their hands. The public needs to be controlled, we place responsible people in power to do this on our behalf, but they are doing it wrongly. Politicians, you can tell they’re lying when their lips are moving.

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  21. The fixed or average speed cameras are nothing but “Extra Revenue Generators”!.
    It has been proven time and time again that “illuminated speed limits” which come alight upon excessive speed have a far greater impact on the driver. This reduces the chances of fatality whilst increasing the safety to the public “if the spokesperson is really concerned as quoted”!
    Personally I say Hats off and a round of applause to whoever maybe doing this!, but I wouldn’t put it pass these beaurocrats if this was an “inside job” just to get the “sympathy vote” on these completely waste of time and space cameras.

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  22. I’ve seen a few of these pernicious cameras with something stuck over the lens. More power to your elbow whoever is responsible. Keep it up!

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  23. If these cameras are for safety why aren’t there warning signs 100, 200 and 300 metres before telling us of their presence? Sticker them all up, well done.

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  24. I have laughed at at lot of these comments, especiaally the one with the poster around the corner…absolutely hillarious!
    Good on the person by sticking paper over the camera. They are only there to rip off the motorist. I find the speed warning poles far better, although they are not always correct. I was driving behind an ambulance one day at 25MPH, it flashed up that we were travelling at 35MPH. Others tell you what the speed limit is, which to my mind is far more effective to the motorist, than a money ripping camera but then they get no revenue from that. SHAME!!! the motto is, “LET’S BASH THE MOTORIST FOR ALL WE CAN GET!”

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  25. I had thought of stickers a while ago, and also the paint, although that ideally needs a long pole fitted with clip and activating lever for the aerosol and I dismissed the idea as too complicated. It hadn’t struck me that using paper is no more than flyposting. Stickers should preferably be dark, so as not to attract immediate attention.I wonder how spray grease would work as an alternative to paint. I’m sure you all understand that this is merely a thought experiment…

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  26. Often felt like doing something of that nature but I KNOW that there would be some “person” with a pointed head watching me. Do the “pointed head ” people not realise just how much they are turning the population against them, or do they not care!!!!

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  27. Good for him/her. These cameras do arouse real anger particularly when they are accompanied by pious comments like, ‘making our environment a safer place’. The Govt. I seem to remember promised to end the war on motorists. True to form they have reneged on their promise. Who would ever trust a politician?

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  28. Surely you are allowed to cover up a light that flashes in your eyes every few minutes!!
    I largely disagree with those who say if you can’t stick to the speed limit and you get caught, it’s your fault – not always the case; you have to know the limit. There is downhill run going into Leicester from the M1 in a rural location. It looks derestricted or at worst 50 mph. There are no close street lights or speed limit signs to indicate the actual speed until beyond the camera and it was only when my TALEX wailed at me and two blue lights came on whilst I was doing 40 mph that I realised it was 30 mph (why 30?). When I managed to slow to 30 mph, two cars tried to overtake and would have done if there had not been opposing traffic. It is painted a dark colour and hidden by tree branches – I only saw it once level with it. It must be a massive income generator. And I somehow doubt anyone could have been killed there as there is no obvious hazard or risk except for people looking for the speed camera!!!
    If cameras were genuinely placed in high risk locations, with sensible limits, I would be happier.

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  29. I don’t know why you persist with the lie that most cameras are not sited where there have been fatal and serious collisions when they ARE. The vast majority of cameras were only erected because they met with the DfT’s criteria – ie that there were four fatal or serious injury crashes in that location in the three previous years. This changed in 2007 after years of campaigning by the road safety groups that it was totally outrageous for people to have to be killed first before a camera could be installed to deter the speedfreaks who drive around endangering people’s lives everywhere they go. But very few new cameras have gone up since then.

    Despite all the lies and fabrication churned out by the anti-camera lobby over the years, the reality is that 75% plus of the public supports the use of cameras, and the percentage has actually increased in recent years. In other words, you are just wasting your time!

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  30. Apologies, but I meant to mention in my initial post that every year thousands of local communities used to apply to have a camera erected in their street only to be told that the location didn’t meet with DfT criteria. Not that they do now the criteria has changed, but they might just get a mobile unit spend a few hours in their street every now and then.

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  31. Hi I am English and live in Poland. These stickers started appearing around two weeks ago here on our speed cameras. Perhaps your ‘Phantom Sticker man’ hails from here?

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  32. There was an artical in Motor Cycles News a while ago about “Captain Gatso” who kept settinf speed cameras on fire. I suggested then than we should have a whip round to buy him some more petrol and a radar detector as it would be a real shame to blow up an empty box!

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  33. Personally, I think the camera partnership are more concerned over the lost fees/income while camera is out. Rather than persons being injured by, “speeding vehicles”.

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  34. He should be given a medal,if the government spent as much effort and money solving crimes rather than just dealing with them as they do on persicuting road users the country would be a better place . But we all no that solving or preventing other crimes doesn’t make money.
    I HOPE HE MEVER GETS CAUGHT

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  35. The reality is that speed does not kill.

    Inappropriate speed may be a factor is some accidents but often that inappropriate speed may be well under the speed limit for the road. There are times when 100mph can be perfectly safe and other times when 30mph is far too fast.

    Speed cameras, and indeed posted speed limits, cannot take road conditions into account – to me that makes them useless.

    Remember that speed limits are still calculated on the basis of cars from the 50s/60s with poor tyres, drum brakes and far lower quality road surfaces.

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  36. So we can beat up old ladies, maim someone, commit all sorts of atrocities and be told to go away and be a good boy,yet,deface a speed camera, they’ll send me to prison!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  37. Message for the police:Don’t whinge about”Lack of resources”.Put your officers to practical use, like patrolling problem areas,Getting out from behind a desk.How about a huge reduction inthe amount of paperwork required to justify a single investigation?We ALL know too well,that the motorist is treated as a cash cow.

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  38. There is no perverting the course of justice here. The most the police can prosecute on is alleged criminal damage. The Authorities would have to prove their facts on why they situated a camera there!
    None of these would apply to the facts.
    fabricating or disposing of evidence, attempts to intimidate a witness or juror, or providing testimony that misleads the authorities in their investigations. It is also considered criminal to conspire with another to pervert the course of justice or to intend to do so.
    Not guilty to perverting the course of justice.

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  39. once had a problem with speed cameras in our area and some one was turning the camera towards the field every ngt so the police offered the guy across the road some money to set up survailenc cameras to catch the culprit needles to say they spent a lot of money a whole month and didnt catch any one the police assumed the locals had found out about the servailance operation little did they know it was the mans teenage son turning the camera 2days after the police gave up the camera started to be turned untill they fixed it in one place true class

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  40. What a sad state our once great country is now in. Motorists appear to be persecuted more avidly than any other group in society.

    So cameras are placed where someone was killed? I truly sympathise with the bereaved but I do not see how placing a camera there is going to bring that person back. No, I know the authorities have not said so much but it really seems as if they believe they have a God-given gift for seeing into the future.

    Here in mid-Wales we have no fixed cameras; it’s the Talivan every time. You might be pleased to know that one of our local villages, Kerry (Ceri) had a van parked just as you left the village into the national speed limit zone (cynical or what?). It caught people doing as little as 32 (in a 30) and the local plod were willing to prosecute at this pathetically low-level or send them on speed awareness courses. I know this for a fact, my wife was one of them. Ho ho! The farmer who owns the land on which the Talivan used to park has put concrete posts in great big tubs there so they can’t do it any more.

    For sure, the public support this terrorism.

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  41. good luck hope whoever did this deed finds enough time to ‘do’ all the static cameras that are springing up all the time to raise more money for all the traffic wardens that are on the increase all over London where do all the councils get the extra money to pay them all? yes us mugs that keep paying the fines!!

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  42. Whatever happened to Angle Grinder Man, the guy who used to cut the yellow Mushrooms off at the base a few years ago? The bloke who just uses “stickers” seems like a complete amateur by comparison :)
    These things, and the mobile cameras make driving a nightmare, as you need to spend more time looking at the speedometer than actually looking through the windscreen if you don’t want to fall foul of the things.
    the self righteous people who say that ” I don’t speed, so I have nothing to worry about” are living in cloud Cuckoo land if the believe that. It takes a fraction of a second for Plod to cop you for being slightly over the speed limit, so unless you are concentrating completely on your Speedo, and not on the road ahead (or behind), you can still inadvertantly stray over the speed limit long enough to be booked(unless the man with the Red flag walking in front of you keeps your speed down?).
    The problem is with ever dininishing driving standards, no just with speed, and it is time that the powers that be realised that.
    Here is a radical thought, How about introducing an aptitude test into the Driving Test, and lets see how many people pas their tests after that? Because a LOT of drivers just have NO APTITUDE at all for driving ( sometimes, for some, just walking is a challenge” :) )

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  43. I was caught eight years ago on a mobile camera doing 33 m.p.h to which I attended a speed awareness course so, after that a purchered a “Talex” camera spotter and keeping fingers crossed will never get caught again.

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  44. They are placed where most people naturally go fastest. Guess why? Because its safest but the limit does not reflect the safe speed for that stretch of road so most people are caught out just driving safely because they are concentrating on the road not the millions of pointless signs about the blindingly obvious.

    The officials are simply self important liars with no idea what they are talking about who simply make it up – politicians in particular – who probably have no idea what road craft is and will do anything to justify their pointless jobs and what is simply a cynical revenue trap positioned to maximise revenue, not safety. How can there be a single safe speed for a 38 tonne artic and a porsche in every weather condition and at the same place? Which of these is the limoit set for? Should the limit be for pensioner with defective eyesite in a Nissan Micra, etc?

    Its complete bollocks? Everything they say is a lie or at best a distortion. Go get ’em.

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  45. Interesting to see that Katherine wont answer in this blog, cos she knows the speed camera ia cash revenue machine and whatever she say is a bloody liar, if everybody were to put sticker (extremely strong glue too) then they will get the message. Not that I am encouraging you to do so he he

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  46. Thats just not true? I know of new roads build in London that did not have any traffic use it, but they installed cameras before it was use!!

    It’s an easy revenue stream !

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  47. Please read this article…..says it all !!!!

    Nothing to do with Road Safety just revenue ….SHAME ON YOU SOMERSET

    thisissomerset.co.uk/Poor-signs-blamed-5-000-drivers-caught-speeding/story-16495040-detail/story.html

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  48. Really well done to the Phantom Camera Sticker, I say stick it to em.
    And as we all know they (cameras) have one purpose in their role and that is to get more money out of the motorists.
    And I believe that more drivers drive around illegally i.e. without insurance due to such a dragonian system where you can lose your licence for a few speeding tickets, I know this doesn’t make it right but if the ‘rules’ were relaxed a little, I am sure it would be better for all motorists.

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  49. Al above (34 – 36) states, without citation, that “75% plus” of the population support the use of these cameras. That smacks of a made-up assertion.

    In our locality, the Local Authority decided to restrict a through route in a residential area from 30 mph to 20mph. Right, so maybe people were going a bit fast. This road has a 90 degree bend, but not severe, half way along, and guess what? Our fabulously under-worked boys in blue set up a couple of cars hidden by the bend with their ray guns and doled out fines and points galore. They had a festival feel about the whole activity. One remarked it was like shelling peas.

    The local residents became incensed by this activity, and also the inappropriate restriction. They lobbied the police and the Council en mass and persistently, raising quite a bit of publicity in the process.

    The limit quietly went back to 30mph and the police activity stopped.

    Not one, repeat NOT ONE person I have ever spoken to on the subject thinks that speed cameras are a good thing. You would think, by now, I would have hit a couple of Al’s “75% plus” people.

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  50. There isn’t a driver anywhere (probably in the world) that hasn’t driven above the speed limit at some point in time, which also includes police and government officials.

    If one checks the freedom of information act and asks for details of police officers who have been caught speeding in a police car when not using blues and twos and not on an emergency call, you’ll find it’s hundreds if not more every year.

    As they say, “let him who is without sin, to cast the first stone”.

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  51. WHAT ONLY ONE ?
    What if we try to help them if the sticker says THIS IS A SPEED CAMERA we will be in effect helping them, will that be still illegal? Maybe we shold have a “PUT THE STICKER ON “Day. I was done for doing 42 in 40mph if thats not money making scam what is it?

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  52. My experience of speed cameras is simply this…Driving locally, drivers know them and the appropriate speed limits but if you dont know the area and speed limits continually change and cameras are there simply to make money because half the time the limits are not made clear between the cameras. Question …..Is it more important to keep taking your eyes off the road to look at your speedometer and hit someone who decides to jump out in front of you or a jay walker, or is it more sensible to drive at a sensible speed and look at the road infront of you and be 100% in charge of the vehicle youre driving?…….Its necessary to slow down the speed merchants but its a proven fact that the cameras do not stop speeders. The only cameras that do this are Specs, The proper drivers are continually being penalised by cameras in general. I am a professional driver and from my 57years on the road I have never been caught speeding on any camera but I have been accidentally caught out at several cameras that have been hidden (obviously to make money) but luckily they were unarmed. The statement made by 14 is quite obviously from someone from another planet or one of these self acclaimed safe drivers who travel everywhere in bottom gear including motorways. My conclusion is to take away all of these cameras and use police mobile cameras to detect stupid/careless and potentially dangerous driving as it happens . By this method the authorities would get more respect and the offenders could face heavy fines or even disqualification and the proper drivers could concentrate on their driving instead of cameras and fines. The amount of prosecutions would reduce but the ensuing publicised penalties, if severe enough would be a deterrent. Most drivers fined by cameras are not bad drivers ,they are just victims of legalised confidence tricks by the authorities to make money. I could go on all day but someone else needs space to speak……….. Don Derby

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  53. All speed cameras are for raising taxes an illegal tax that pays for more cameras the local councils are making millions out of them, soon the condem government will privatise them there will then be one every 100 yards.

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  54. How amusing ……I’d like to buy the culprit a drink too.
    Heres another fact I found amusing ……only 300yards from my house,the authorities had to install a CCTV camera ……to protect the speed camera.
    [LOL]

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  55. I live in Cardiff. If we had had as many fatalities as we have speed cameras, we would be headline news. Oh yes, and the bit of road at Capel Llanillteyrn where the filth do their speed training and where accidents have happened – including fatalities – there’s no speed camera. It’s bendy with two solid white lines (no overtaking) but Bridgend speed training uses that because it is so dangerous. For US.

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  56. Nigel (68) do you mean that they don’t already have them every ioo yards already??
    I know of a stretch of road that has two fixed cameras in a half a mile, and a frequent visit by a mobile “Tallyvan” on the same stretch of road too.

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  57. Here is a thought, make a Freedom of Information request to your local Police force for statistics regarding a specific Speed camera, which you are entitled to do.
    If every driver in the U.K did this, it will tie up so much Police time that they may just get the message and they will think twice about where they employ these infernal things??

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