SWINDON’S decision to scrap its speed cameras has been vindicated by the leader of the TaxPayers’ Alliance.

Fixed penalty fines raised by speed camera partnership schemes have reached more than £65 million a year, according to figures from the TaxPayers’ Alliance and the Drivers’ Alliance.

Including court fines collected from speeding and red light offences, total annual speeding fines stand at £87.3m, the two groups said.

They also published figures they said showed that road casualty numbers have declined at a slower rate since speed cameras were introduced in the early 1990s compared with the rate before then.

The TaxPayers’ Alliance chief executive Matthew Elliott said: “Motorists have long suspected that speed cameras are more about raising money than keeping the roads safe.

“These findings show that the state has been squeezing a fortune out of people using these cameras, but if anything the rate of reduction in casualty numbers has slowed.

“The whole country should follow the example of Swindon, which has scrapped cameras altogether. People are sick of being fined under the guise of road safety."

The figures showed that a total of £87,368,227 was collected in fines for speeding and red light offences caught on speed cameras in the financial period 2008-09 in the UK. This includes fines from magistrates' courts for speeding offences and neglect of traffic directions, such as lane offences, in 2008.

The total also includes £65,748,850 from fixed penalties detected by cameras operated by safety camera partnerships in England and Wales.

And it also includes £19,214,594 in fines from magistrates’ courts for speeding offences and neglect of traffic directions in calendar year 2008 in England and Wales; £1,641,630 was collected for speeding offences by the Scottish courts in 2008-09; £763,153 came from from fixed penalties detected by speed cameras in Northern Ireland. The two organisations said it could be estimated that 1,555,244 more road casualties occurred between 1991-2007 than would have if the 1978-1990 casualty trend had continued.

Swindon Council leader Rod Bluh said: “We took the decision because it was quite clear from the government’s own information and Department of Transport figures that speed is not the major cause of accidents.

“Thus far we have been vindicated by the results and I would support the comments made by the chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance.”

In August it will be a year since the cameras were scrapped in Swindon and Coun Bluh said the last figures he had seen had shown there had been no increase in accidents since then.