Camera van locations hidden

Locations of speed camera vans will be kept secret from next week, it emerged today.

Local speed camera authorities have decided to no longer reveal day-to-day locations on their websites, one of the authorities told MCN.

Dave Gollicker, spokesman for the Avon and Somerset Safety Camera Partnership, said: “What it means is that instead of publishing our schedules for our mobile enforcement teams at our cameras sites, we will no longer do that from the end of the month.” He said the partnership was “following the lead” of “other partnerships around the country”.

Gollicker said the decision followed a lack of interest in the information. He said: “If there’s a demand for it to be brought back, we’ll certainly look at it.”

The news came after a tip-off from one of our website users, regarding a news item on the partnership’s website. The item stated: “The publishing of mobile enforcement schedules will be under internal review from April 1 2007. Schedules will not be published from Monday April 2 2007 until further notice.”

A spokesman for West Mercia Safety Camera Partnership confirmed a similar decision had been taken. In a statement he said: “The general principle we have to promote is that drivers should observe speeds limits at all times and places, irrespective of the likelihood of enforcement and detection. We feel that continued release of the site lists undermines this principle and have therefore decided to stop issuing these.”