John Baron

Conservative Party | Billericay and District

Points of View

Christmas Card Competition

The take-up from Primary Schools in the Constituency for this year’s Christmas Card competition is once again encouraging and well-up on last year.  The idea behind the competition is very simple.  Each year, like most people, we send out a good number of cards and we thought it a good idea if we used this as an opportunity to encourage local children with their artwork.

Last year’s competition was a great success and, as with last year, there will be prizes for the winner and runners-up, together with a guided tour of Parliament and talk for the winner’s class.  And in lieu of buying shop cards, I will make a donation to the annual Fun Walk which, since its inception in 2002, has raised over £85,000 for 50 local charities and good causes.

Speed Cameras

Recent figures obtained through the Freedom of Information Act in Parliament show that of the £114m raised by speed camera fines last year, £22m was ‘creamed off’ by the Treasury.  Meanwhile, in answer to my Parliamentary Questions last year, the Government admitted to taking over £9m from the £14m raised in speeding fines in Essex between 1997 and 2002.

I believe all monies raised in fines should be spent on road safety measures, otherwise this is just another ‘stealth tax’ on local motorists who are already having to cope with high fuel prices. 

But I also believe we need to take a look more closely at the effectiveness of some speed cameras.  Close analysis of a Department of Transport report last year showed that at half of the 1800 sites examined, there had either been an increase in the number of people killed or seriously injured in the year following the installation of cameras, or they had made no difference at all to accident rates. 

Fears that drivers might have been paying more attention to cameras than the road, and that traffic policing has been replaced by an over-reliance on cameras, are among the possible explanations.

We need a review of the speed camera sites at which the number of accidents have either got worse or stayed the same – especially as the Report highlighted the fact that Essex has one of the highest proportions of questionable camera sites.  So far the Government has rejected calls for such a review.  This complacency is dangerous, and my Conservative colleagues and I shall continue to press the Government on this issue.