Central Scotland Police

Camera Safety Partnership

Key organisations in Central Scotland are working together to reduce vehicle speeds and improve road safety for all road users.

The Central Scotland Safety Camera Partnership has been formed to reduce casualties from collisions through a combination of speed enforcement and education. Excessive speed is a major contributory factor in many collisions where death and serious injury occur. The Partnership is aiming to further drivers’ understanding of the need for speed reduction and to change driver behaviour so that speeding is considered to be as anti-social as drink driving.

The Central Scotland Safety Camera Partnership is made up of Clackmannanshire Council, Falkirk Council, Stirling Council, Central Scotland Police, the Scottish Executive, Area Procurator Fiscal and Clackmannan, Falkirk and Stirling District Courts. Supporting Partners are Forth Valley NHS Board, the Scottish Ambulance Service and Central Scotland Fire and Rescue Service.

In 2004, 904 people were killed or injured on Central Scotland’s roads, of these 183 were seriously injured and 15 were killed.

In line with 45 other Safety Camera Partnerships now operating across the UK, the Central Scotland Partnership has been formed as an effective way of investing monies raised from fixed penalty fines in road safety. Any surplus income will be returned to the Treasury.

The Partnership will operate 2 mobile camera units at 12 identified sites with a history of excessive vehicle speeds and casualties: A908 Sauchie; A907 Cambus; A908 Devonside, Tillicoulty; M9 Stirling (north); A9 Dunblane (south); A82 Crianlarich; M876 Torwood, Larbert (north); M9 Polmont (north); M9 at M876 (north); A706 Linlithgow Road, Bo’ness; M80 Denny (north) and A993 Dean Road, Bo’ness.

All locations where the mobile cameras are operating are well sign-posted and the mobile camera vans are highly visible.

Safety cameras are just one tool used by local organisations to help improve road safety. Engineering measures are also implemented to improve road safety in areas where collisions are more likely to occur. These include road improvements, traffic calming, signage, carriageway markings and lighting, as well as speed-activated signs warning drivers of their speed and of the need to slow down.

Kevin Robertson, Chair of the Central Scotland Safety Camera Partnership Programme Board and Stirling Council’s Roads Manager, said: "We’ve seen from experience elsewhere that safety cameras are effective in reducing vehicle speeds and road accident casualties. In addition to safety cameras, local authorities in Central Scotland will continue to work in partnership with the communities, Central Scotland Police and other bodies, to implement a range of road safety initiatives and projects. This includes road improvements and traffic management measures at identified accident sites, along with the introduction of traffic calming and 20mph speed limits around schools and other traffic sensitive areas, and the use of speed activated warning signs. Our aim is to improve road safety, reduce vehicle speeds and improve conditions for all road users. It is anticipated that safety cameras will play their part in helping to achieve the overall casualty reduction targets set by Central Government for the three Council areas which make up the Partnership."

Inspector Bob Murphy, Central Scotland Safety Camera Partnership Programme Manager said: "Central Scotland Police have been, and will remain, committed to the reduction of road collision casualties throughout our area.

“The formation of the Safety Camera Partnership will allow us to enhance already strong relationships with our partners and provide structured safety camera attendance at locations throughout the area which have prominent casualty statistics and where speeding is known to be an issue.

“Our goal is to assist in making the roads in our area even safer and to do this we will concentrate our efforts on those motorists who choose to disregard the speed limit and compromise their safety and that of every other road users".

Councillor Janet Cadenhead, Clackmannanshire Council, said: "Reducing speed in our communities is vitally important. It is a major factor in many of the road accidents that take place across Clackmannanshire. Despite our best efforts to educate people about the dangers of speeding there are some drivers who refuse to listen. The work of the Safety Camera Partnership will go a long way to reducing speeds in our towns and villages, and hopefully make them a safer place for residents and visitors as a result."

Councillor Diane Williamson, Falkirk Council Convener of Community Health and Safety welcomed the project: “I believe the Central Scotland Safety Camera Partnership will help to reduce speeds on our roads and make them safer. Vehicle speed is a major factor in the severity of accidents. The Partnership, by focusing on both education and enforcement, can play an important role in making speeding socially unacceptable, complementing Falkirk Council’s work on traffic management, 20mph speed limits at schools and other road safety schemes."

Councillor Gillie Thomson, Chair of Stirling Council’s Environment Committee, said “The Central Scotland Safety Camera Partnership accords with the objectives of the Council’s Road Safety Plan, which strives to improve the safety of the road network through joint working across the various public agencies, using the complimentary themes of engineering, education, enforcement and encouragement. I believe the work of the Partnership will assist in reducing vehicle speeds and collision casualties, and in conjunction with accident remedial schemes and traffic management measures being implemented by the Council, will make the roads safer for all road users and communities.”

Chief Constable Andrew Cameron, Central Scotland Police, said the new camera partnership would complement the work undertaken by Road Policing Unit officers in tackling road safety.

He said: "I welcome the launch of the Central Scotland Safety Camera Partnership. Our focus in Central Scotland Police is a drive to tackle all anti-social behaviour. There is nothing more anti-social and inconsiderate than driving faster than the speed limit allows.

"We all want to reduce the number of road collisions and by doing so, the number of fatalities and injuries to adults and children in our communities. Speed plays a major part in collisions and drivers must slow down.

"Enforcement is big part of our overall strategy, but it goes along with an emphasis on education – for motorists and all road users of all ages. Encouraging motorists to examine their driving habits and address the poor behaviour on the roads is also central to our work. But engineering is also critical and we work closely in partnership with our local authorities and road experts to identify and design-out accident hotspots."

Bob MacGregor, Area Service Manager Forth Valley Scottish Ambulance Service, said: “The Ambulance Service fully supports this important initiative. It is well documented that the reduction of speed has an effect on reducing the severity of injuries, both in and out of a vehicle.

“This initiative will help to reduce both the severity of injuries and the number of fatalities. It will help to reduce the need for our resources to be kept for long periods of time at road traffic collisions and therefore be available to provide immediate care to cardiac, trauma and other medical emergencies within our communities.”

Steven Torrie, Chief Fire Officer, Central Scotland Fire & Rescue Service, said: “I believe that this road safety and casualty reduction initiative is one that is capable of demonstrating measurable results by encouraging drivers to slow down, thus reducing the likelihood and severity of road accidents. In other areas, where such measures have been introduced, improvements in road safety have been realised.

“All too often, my officers, and those of the other emergency services, are required to deal with the after effects of incidents where speeding has been the single biggest factor. They have to witness the impact on those involved and on their loved ones. A reduction in the requirement to attend road traffic collisions, with the implicit burden upon emergency and other services, will allow valuable resources to be re-directed into other preventative community safety measures.”

Full information about the Central Scotland Safety Camera Partnership, how it operates and where the camera sites are located will be available in the local press and on the Partnership’s web site www.centralsafetycameras.co.uk