Cat and Fiddle camera delay “due to snow” not cock-up

Camera bosses have blamed a 12-week delay in switching on a network of new bike-catching speed traps on bad weather – in January.

They say it has nothing to do with a cock-up exposed by MCN which render the devices useless. 

The rear-facing average-speed cameras, on the A537 Cat and Fiddle road from Macclesfield in Cheshire to Buxton, Derbyshire, time bikes between one unit and the next and calculate their speed by assuming they’ve stayed on the same road. But between two of them there is a shortcut which leaves and rejoins the A537, cutting the journey and making the speed calculation impossible.  

Since April, when MCN revealed the flaw, Cheshire Safer Roads Partnership manager Lee Murphy has admitted that’s what’s holding up the £900,000 project.

But now a partnership spokesman has said: ‘The average speed cameras are not yet operational. In conjunction with our delivery partners, we are currently finalizing their commissioning. The delay was caused by the inclement weather earlier this year.’

Asked to elaborate, he said: ‘The inclement weather was widely reported nationally in January – you may recall the snow that brought most of the country to a standstill. Given the altitude of the Cat and Fiddle route, that part of Cheshire and Derbyshire was particularly affected. If you want further specific information on this, you may want to speak to the Met Office and ask for detailed weather reports.’

The spokesman told MCN not to question Murphy again and would only communicate by email.

For more on this, get MCN, on sale June 23.