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Freedom of Information Act Publication
Scheme
Role of Cumbria Safety Cameras Cumbria Safety Cameras was established in April 2003 as part of a nationwide initiative to reduce the number of people being killed or seriously injured on the county’s roads by 40 per cent on a 1994-98 baseline by 2010. The operation of the safety cameras was at that time overseen and supervised by the Cumbria Safety Camera Partnership comprising representatives from Cumbria Constabulary, Cumbria County Council, the Highways Agency and Her Majesty’s Court Service. Direct control of the project by the Department for Transport and the ending of the funding through hypothecation (netting off) occurred on March 31, 2007, and the official partnership was disbanded. Governance The camera operation is currently supervised by a project board comprising senior representatives of Cumbria Constabulary,( Chief Inspector Kevin Greenhow)) Cumbria County Council (Rob Terwey) and the Highways Agency (Bob Baldwin). Minutes of the project board meetings will be posted onto this website's library section.
Cumbria Safety Camera Personnel Structure Manager of the Cumbria Safety Camera unit is Kevin Tea. He joined the safety camera partnership as Communications Manager at its inception and took over as manager in April 2009. The cameras are operated on behalf of Cumbria Constabulary with the line management for the safety camera unit being through Chief Inspector for Uniformed Operation Support, who sits on the project board, and to the Superintendent who heads up Uniformed Operation Support. The unit also has an administration manager and six safety camera technicians who operate the mobile cameras from a small fleet of clearly marked vans. The technicians also process the static camera offences. Cumbria Safety Cameras Operational Strategy In 2003 the protect started by monitoring 50 hotspots in the county that were identified by analysis of killed and serious injury clusters that matched corresponding locations where excessive speed had been recorded. The hotspots were monitored by a small fleet of safety camera vans and operated by the technicians on a scheduled basis. In 2005 the county saw the two year roll-out of 12 static cameras at six sites at Salthouse Road, Barrow, the A591 at Ings, the A590 at Millside, the A595 at Howgate, the A65 at Kirkby Lonsdale and the A69 at Low Row. With the ending of DfT control in 2007, Cumbria Safety Cameras introduced Random Road Watch, a route-based, operate-anywhere strategy which increased the number of sites monitored by the mobile cameras to more than 200. As a result of this killed or serious injury casualties were substantially reduced and the county came in under the Government’s 2010 target three years early and in line with a predicted 35% drop in fatalities. Random Road Watch did away with the publication of site locations and the schedule of where the vans would be operating. A list of sites is available here. In 2008 Cumbria recorded its lowest number of fatalities for more than 20 years – 29 deaths – and in 2009 that total was further cut to 24 deaths. In both years the county saw reductions in serious and slight injury casualties. The theory behind Random Road Watch is that by not notifying drivers of where the vans will be operating and increasing the number of sites there is an uncertainty factor which leads to greater compliance with speed limits, lower speeds and fewer collisions. To maintain a watching brief on driver behaviour, the safety camera team carries out regular traffic data unit (TDU) surveys. The TDUs are placed on the road network and, over a number of days, record the time, speed and class of all vehicles that travel past. This data is then downloaded onto special software which provides easy to read graphical charts of the recorded data. Areas on the road network which record high speeds will be, where health and safety audits permit, be included in the site rota for monitoring and enforcement. A monthly update on killed and serious injury casualties in Cumbria can be obtained at http://www.cumbriasafetycameras.org/facts.php . Please bear in mind that these figures for the latest year will be audited by the Department for Transport and may change slightly. Equipment Used By Cumbria Safety Cameras Cumbria Safety Cameras uses three camera enforcement systems and the links to the manufacturers’ web sites are: TeleTraffic Concept LTi2020 mobile camera for use in vans Speed Check Services static time over distance (SPECS) cameras RedSpeed static cameras Calibration certificates for the equipment can be viewed in the sites library section. Wider Partnership Working Cumbria Safety Cameras is a member of the Cumbria Road Safety Partnership along with other organisations that include: Cumbria Constabulary Annual Statement of Accounts & Financial Matters Cumbria Safety Cameras receives its operational funding through a road safety grant from the Department for Transport which is administered by Cumbria County Council. All fine revenue goes directly to the Treasury. Copies of the annual Statement of Accounts can be obtained from the Department for Transport web site or through the county council. How To Make A Freedom Of Information Request To make a Freedom of Information request to Cumbria Safety Cameras you can do so either by email to foi@cumbriasafetycameras.org or in writing to: FOI How To Contact The Office of the Information Commissioner The address of Office of the Information Commissioner is Information
Commissioner's Office
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