The number of tickets given to motorists caught by speed cameras in Kent has more than doubled since 1997, government figures show.
And the controversial devices last year raked in nearly three times the amount they made sicne a decade ago in the county.
Home Office figures released this week showed that motorists in England and Wales are landed with nearly two million speeding tickets every year.
Defending the statistics, the Government insisted that speed cameras saved lives and cut serious injuries on the roads.
But motoring groups have attacked the safety claims, saying they are flawed. They say speed cameras are being used just to make money.
The figures published this week show the Kent and Medway Safety Camera Partnership dished out 28,706 speeding tickets in 1997. At £40 each, the fines were worth £1,148,240.
But by 2005, the number of tickets had gone up to 53,289. Each cost drivers £60 - generating a massive £3,197,340 in all.
And the partnership told the Saturday Observer that last year it issued 70,265 tickets - worth £4,215,900.
A spokesman for the Department for Transport said: “Independent research shows a 42 per cent reduction in the number of people killed or seriously injured at camera sites - that means more than 100 fewer deaths each year.”
But Paul Smith, from campaign group Safe Speed, said: “The implied claim that cameras are responsible for the observed reduction is wholly falsified by the very same independent research."
Mr Smith added: “Speed cameras have been a road safety disaster. Despite millions of fines each year we have not even seen the road safety improvements that we expected.”
Roger Lawson, Kent spokesman for the Association for British Drivers, backed Safe Speed’s claims.
“If there is a fatal accident once a year, they put in a camera and next year when there is no fatal accident at that spot, they claim it was down to the camera.
“Fatal accidents are so random they rarely happen in exactly the same place.”
Mr Smith said there were 3,175 road deaths in 2006, which he claimed was around 1,200 more than what they should be if the cameras were doing their job.
“They should all be scrapped now,” he said. “The Government has had 15 years of them and it has been proved time and again they are not working. The DfT quite clearly knows they are a failed road safety policy.”
However, former Transport Minister Steve Ladyman, Labour MP for South Thanet, gave his full backing to the cameras.
Dr Ladyman, who used to have nine points on his licence after being snapped by speed cameras twice on the M2 and once on the A2, said: “There is no excuse for being caught. Drive at the speed limit which is clearly displayed.
"The speed cameras and speed limits do work. We have the safest roads in the world. They reduce deaths and serious injury.
"There are not too many speed cameras in Kent or in the country. They are only placed in black spots where there has been a history of fatal or serious accidents."
Rachel Wall, communications manager, for the Kent and Medway Safety Camera Partnership said: “Since July 2002 there has been a 58.3 per cent reduction in deaths and serious injuries at camera sites, which is excellent news.”
Set up in 2002, the partnership is made up of Kent County Council, Medway Council, the Highways Agency, Kent Police, and Her Majesty’s Courts Service.
The partnership stressed that not all fines issued were actually paid.
Some drivers opted to take speed awareness classes instead, while others, including some foreign motorists, dodged the system and didn’t pay.
POSTED: 08/12/2007 07:00:00
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