The Mayor of Greater Lincolnshire, Dame Andrea Jenkyns, has insisted that her suggestion to scrap speed cameras was a joke, after attracting criticism for making the remark while visiting a speed camera company’s exhibition stand at Highways UK at the NEC.
In a video posted on social media, captioned ‘speed cameras have been put on notice’, Jenkyns, who represents Reform UK, is seen standing alongside speed camera equipment and declaring that she wants to get rid of the cameras when she takes on policing responsibilities.
“I’m at the highways conference in Birmingham and there’s some speed cameras. When I’m police and crime commissioner, I want to get rid of these,” she says.
The comments are particularly striking given her position as Mayor of Greater Lincolnshire and the policing and crime responsibilities due to transfer to the mayoral role from the existing police and crime commissioner structure.
While Jenkyns has since insisted that the remarks were intended as a joke, the video prompted questions about her attitude towards a widely used road safety enforcement tool – and the message such comments send from someone about to assume responsibility for policing and crime in the region.
Among those criticising the remarks was Chris Dicks, a former police officer, Speedwatch volunteer and now a parish councillor in Lincolnshire.
Councillor Dicks questioned the substance behind the mayor’s comments, saying:
“She says these sorts of things, makes a statement, gives no reasons, no argument and just waits for the flak to come at her and then she comes back saying ‘everybody’s having a go at me’.”
He also defended the role speed cameras can play in reducing vehicle speeds, highlighting the effectiveness of average speed camera systems.
“They are probably the best you can possibly have because it does mean that people do have to drop their speed because they can’t work out how fast they can maintain, or how slow they can maintain to actually go between the two cameras,” he said.
By contrast, he argued, drivers can simply slow down as they approach a conventional fixed speed camera before accelerating again once they have passed it.
He added that any cameras with the potential to reduce vehicle speeds were preferable to having no enforcement cameras at all.
Ms Jenkyns’ comments may have been intended as a throwaway joke, but making them on the exhibition stand of a company whose business is speed camera technology – and in her capacity as a mayor about to inherit policing responsibilities – was always likely to attract attention.
The original video can be viewed here.
(Picture: Lincolnshire County Council)
