Speed Camera Earns £800,000 in Just 6 Months

Britain's most lucrative speed camera is in Cardiff, sited on Newport Road which has a 30mph limit. It has raked in £800,000 in just six months. To achieve this figure it is trapping an average of 71 drivers every day (it has already caught an astonishing 13,624 drivers this year)

This has overtaken the earnings from a
camera at Junction 25 on the M60 in Greater Manchester which averaged catching 26 speeding drivers per day. (figures from research conducted by LV insurance)

Motorists are obviously feeling angered by the speed camera after road chiefs hailed it a massive success. The camera was installed in 2012 but it has only just became 'fully commissioned'

Mother-of-three Karen Leyshon, who was caught going at 34mph through the speed trap, said: 'It's is ridiculous - I've been driving on that road every days for years without any problem whatsoever until this camera was put up. It is nothing but a cash cow. It's outrageous, the camera does nothing to improve safety of this road. It may be a busy stretch but it's perfectly safe. I didn't notice the camera going up, I got caught doing 34mph and I had to pay £85 for a speed awareness course. It was a complete waste of my time and money - I'm sure that most of the other 13,000 people would tell you exactly the same thing.'

In the first half of the year 5,906 people who got caught by the camera completed speed awareness courses after being caught speeding at the junction. A further 3,064 people paid speeding fines in the same six months. Assuming the minimum fine of £100 and a typical cost of £85 per place on speed awareness courses, the camera could have netted an astonishing £808,410.

The GoSafe partnership say that the area has a high flow of traffic and motorists should always comply with the speed limit. Road safety groups have said the camera is not doing it's job properly and should be there to reduce speeds rather than bring in money.

Tim Shallcross, from the Institute of Advanced Motorists, said: 'The whole purpose of speed cameras is to slow people down, because it's felt that excessive speed in that area causes casualties. 'If a camera is issuing a small number of fines, or none at all, it's doing its job. If it's ticketing that many people, it's not having that effect.

'The local authority, which is responsible for road safety, should be looking at those figures and saying, 'We seem to have an issue here - the camera is catching a lot of people. 'Let's make sure that it looks like a 30mph highway, and that the cameras are clearly visible and the signs aren't obscured by vegetation'.