Vandals set blaze under speed camera

by TIM FLETCHER

A SPEED camera in Burton could be the latest target of a guerilla campaign against the devices.

The camera, on Ashby Road, Winshill, near its junction with Tower Road, was put out of action at the weekend after vandals placed car tyres at the base of the camera pole and set it on fire.

The attack blackened the pole and outer casing, while smoke damaged the camera mechanism causing it to malfunction, meaning drivers have been able to flout the 40mph speed limit without being caught.

Speed cameras have been the subject of debate in recent years, with some motorists disputing government and road safety campaigners' claims about the safety benefits of cameras and claiming they are used by police forces as a money-making exercise.

The increasing prevalence of the devices on Britain's roads led to one group, Motorists Against Detection (MAD), beginning a 'direct action' campaign against speed cameras.

The group, founded in 2000 and led by a shadowy figure known only as 'Captain Gatso', co-ordinate their efforts over the Internet and claim to have disabled more than 1,000 cameras.

The group's methods range from low-level criminal damage such as spray-painting the lense of the devices, to more serious acts such as arson attacks like the one in Burton, felling the cameras using an angle grinder and even blowing them up with explosives.

A spokesman for Staffordshire Casualty Reduction Partnership, a joint body made up of representatives from the police and Staffordshire County Council, which is responsible for the cameras, condemned the attack.

"The statistics show that these cameras do save lives, and this particular camera has reduced accidents causing death or injury on that stretch of road by 69 per cent," said the spokesman. "People who vandalise or damage the cameras should know that they are potentially putting people's lives at risk."

The spokesman said that incidents of this nature were rare, and that only a handful of cameras in Staffordshire had been attacked over the past year.

However Internet sites linked to the MAD group, which The Mail has viewed, openly encourage the destruction of speed cameras, and display pictures of dozens of cameras across the country, including some in Staffordshire, which have been damaged, set on fire or blown up.

The camera was due to be repaired in the next few days, while police are appealing for witnesses to the incident, which is believed to have happened between Friday night and Saturday morning, to contact them.