A CONTROVERSIAL plan to increase the number of speed cameras across Merseyside by 50% has been scrapped.
The Daily Post can reveal the Merseyside Road Safety Camera Partnership - which would have seen around 30,000 extra tickets handed out to motorists annually - is to be disbanded.
The partnership, made up of the five local councils, Merseyside Police and magistrates' courts, spent two years putting together the plan which would have seen an extra 28 mobile cameras added to the 56 already operating.
They hoped the scheme would increase the number of speeding tickets from 20,000 to 50,000 a year and raise £1.8m annually to pay for even more cameras and road safety schemes.
However, the number of cameras nationwide has created a backlash amid accusations that they have become a money-making scheme targeting motorists.
Following the decision, a senior Liverpool councillor last night accused the Government of "moving the goalposts" on how sites would be judged, adding that road safety would be hit.
Cllr Peter Millea, Liverpool's executive member for regeneration, said: "I'm very disappointed. The Government has moved the goalposts on us and are penalising us for being successful.
"I know some motorists dislike the cameras, but I went to a meeting of Roadpeace last night - people who have lost loved ones often due to speeding motorists - and their stories would move you to tears.
"We have to do everything we can to reduce the deaths on our roads, but we can't do it without the funds."
In February, the partnership applied for a Department for Transport (DfT) scheme called "netting off" which would allow all the money collected in speeding fines to be spent on Merseyside instead of going back to the Exchequer.
But that bid has now been rejected by the DfT who said many of the sites did not meet the accident criteria needed to site cameras there.
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