Cash from speeding fines should come back to Rotherham, say councillors
Speeding fines income could help improve safety, it is suggested
Rotherham Council is being asked to formally back a suggestion that it should get a slice of the cash raised from speeding fines.
At present, the Government raises around £100m a year from motorists who break the speed limit.
None of that goes back to local authorities, although they are responsible for helping to finance some of the infrastructure, like speed cameras, which help keep the public safe.
Now Rotherham Council is being asked to adopt a motion which would see the authority write to the Secretary of State for Transport and the Chancellor of the Exchequer - Rawmarsh and Conisbrough MP John Healey - asking that half the cash generated from fines should go back to the authorities where they were raised.
The authority is also requested to write to Kilvinder Vigurs, deputy mayor for policing and crime in South Yorkshire, to ask that “robust mechanisms are put in place to allow elected members to better direct enforcement action within their wards.”
It is also suggested that the council should explore the possibility of acquiring mobile cameras monitoring average speeds over a stretch of road - rather than at one fixed point - which could be move around different locations.
That would “encourage behaviour change, improve compliance with speed limits, and increase awareness of the consequences of dangerous driving,” the motion states.
It has been raised by Cllr Drew Tarmey and seconded by Cllr Charlotte Carter and will be considered when councillors gather for a full meeting of the authority on September 9.