Speed camera fines netted more than £4 million in Sussex last year.

More than 68,000 vehicles were snapped by fixed position cameras as drivers broke the limit during the 2006/7 financial year.

A total of 15,408 prosecutions were brought against offenders.

Fines totalling £4,110,000 were issued, around £3 million of which has so far been collected.

The figures have attracted criticism from MPs and road-users.

East Worthing and Shoreham MP Tim Loughton said: "These figures reflect the suspicion that in some cases, speed cameras are being placed not so much as a road safety measure but more as a revenue generator.

"While we need to do much more to cut down on serious accidents, there are many more ways of doing that rather than just relying on the blunt instrument of a speed camera on stretches of road where there are not many accidents."

Claire Armstrong, from the Safe Speed Road Safety Campaign, said cameras did not make for safer drivers on the roads.

She said: "I think that drivers are changing their culture by knowing where the cameras are and slowing down for them."

She said that England used to have the safest roads in the world but had now slipped to number six on the list.

The Sussex Safer Roads Partnership said the money from the fines goes to the Government, which then uses it to pay grants to local authorities, including those which covered its £2.5million a year running costs, while any surplus cash was retained by the Government.

Emma Rogers, a spokeswoman for the body, said: "The figure has remained quite constant over the past few years despite the number of vehicles on the road increasing year on year.

"That constant figure is good news because it means that people are starting to pay attention to all the publicity, the cameras and the warning signs and slowing down on the roads."

Ms Rogers said that the prevention of fatal car crashes by speed cameras not only saved lives but saved money as well.

She said the partnership's cameras only covered 3% of the county's roads and each fatal crash was estimated to cost the county around £1.3 million in road closures, emergency services response, hospital care, court costs and other factors.

As a result she said that speed cameras saved the county more than £20 million a year as well as reducing the number of people killed on the roads.

Some of the fines related to last year's notices would never be paid because some motorists would have them appealed and overturned.

Some were also attributed to emergency services vehicles on call which would not have to be paid.

Brighton Kemptown MP Des Turner said cameras were a useful part of road safety measures.

He said: "I have no problem with speed cameras. I think drivers need to show more intelligence.

"An awful lot go racing around, brake for the camera and then go speeding off again.

"I think the main issue is driver behaviour and there is a limit to how much you can control that."

Despite the high number of speed camera fines issued, there was actually a reduction of around 10,000 on the previous financial year.

There were 83,476 offences detected by speed cameras in 2005 and 68,957 in 2006.

The number of road casualties has also fallen. In 2005 there were 1,008 serious injuries on Sussex roads, including 117 deaths. The number of serious injuries rose to 1,033 in 2006 then fell again to 1,018 in 2007. The number of deaths fell to 99 in 2006 and again to 68 in 2007.

Inspector Steve Grace, of the Sussex Police road policing department, said the reduction in fatalities had been the combination of many efforts, including improved road engineering and pro-active police work.

In England and Wales the number of fines for speeding has almost trebled from 700,000 a year in 1997 to more than 1.9 million in 2005.

Road deaths across the country fell by seven per cent between 1998 and 2006 but have risen in the past three years.

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