Speeders paying a high price for flouting limits

LOVE them or loathe them, speed cameras are a feature of modern driving on Britain's roads. In recent years they've proliferated and some are more effective than others.

- By ANDREW FORGRAVE Countryside and Tourism Editor [e-mail]

Mobile cameras can pop anywhere, though advance notice is usually given. These can capture large numbers of offences: in the 18 months after the default 20mph regime was implemented in Wales, more than 112,000 speeding drivers were logged in 20mph zones.

Yet fixed cameras are even more potent. A Freedom of Information disclosure by North Wales Police has identified the three fixed cameras that have snared the most drivers in the past three years (2022-24).

Of the trio, two are LEZ air quality cameras, which measure average speeds. These were installed by the Welsh Government on the A494 in Deeside and the A483 in Wrexham to reduce exhaust pollution.

They've been effective on two fronts - curbing nitrogen dioxide emissions and catching out large numbers of motorists.

Topping the North Wales list for fixed cameras, with 19,903 Notices of Intended Prosecution (NIP), was the A494 eastbound stretch between Garden City and Deeside Industrial Park interchange, Flintshire.