The £800,000 speed camera cock-up

High-tech new speed cameras on one of the country’s most popular bike routes are useless due to an apparent oversight.

The new cameras are aimed at catching motorcyclists on the A537 Cat and Fiddle road from Macclesfield to Buxton, Derbyshire.

They have been installed at five points along the road and riders are timed between them to calculate their average speed.

But camera bosses have apparently failed to take into account that between two of the sites there is a shortcut with a higher speed limit.

The cameras depend on a distance-over-time calculation to determine speed. But the shortcut shaves a third of a mile off the distance, rendering the calculation inaccurate.

The shortcut also has a 60mph speed limit whereas the A537 is a 50mph zone.

The Cheshire Safer Roads Partnership has spent £800,000 installing the cameras.

Partnership manager Lee Murphy said the cameras were functioning but no-one had yet been prosecuted.

He acknowledged the flaw but denied it was an oversight.

“We’re looking at that now as an issue for us,” he said. “There are a couple of calculations to be made and we’re just testing it out now and we’ll have a view on it.”

For a map showing the location of the shortcut, and to read how the cameras could issue a penalty to someone who hasn’t broken the limit, get MCN, on sale now.