AA/Populus polls consistently show that approximately 70% of AA members accept the use of cameras. The latest poll of almost 15,000 AA members showed that 69% accept the use of cameras. The previous poll of 11,000 showed that 70% accept the use of cameras.

All the money raised from fines goes back to the Treasury and funding is allocated to individual partnerships based on a grant, irrespective of the number of fixed penalty tickets issued.

Increasingly, partnerships are moving towards driver education as an alternative to prosecution because the objective is to reduce speed and save lives. This move to speed awareness courses is supported by 80% of AA members.

Marginal increases in speed can be the difference between life and death. A child involved in a collision with a vehicle travelling at 30mph has an 80% chance of survival - at 40mph there is an 80% chance that they will die.

The Government has stated it will not fund any more new fixed site cameras. In most areas there have been no new fixed cameras for six years. The Government has also announced a 37% reduction in the road safety support grant which is the funding provided to local authorities for road safety purposes.

It is the combination of those two announcements which has created the risk to the continued viability of the camera enforcement programme, say the AA.

Edmund King, AA president, said: “Cameras will never be loved but their use is accepted by the majority of motorists. If cameras are situated in the right place, on the right roads with the right speed limit, they can be effective and will be accepted by the public.”

Over the last few years excessive speeding has reduced in urban areas and this is largely due to the camera deterrent effect and a more general awareness that speeding in urban areas is dangerous, say the AA.

The percentage of vehicles exceeding the 30mph speed limit was lower in every vehicle category last year than ten years previously. Indeed the number of cars exceeding the 30mph limit has fallen 20% in the last decade. Road casualties also fell by 31% between 1994-98 average and 2009.