Legal issues and technical difficulties have prevented the 36 digital cameras from being switched on which were intended to enforce variable speed limits along the motorway. The highways agency has said it was working with police to solve the problem as a “matter of urgency”.
With around 500,000 drivers using the M25 every day, it is one of Europe’s busiest motorways. Cameras have been used to catch speeding drivers on it since 1995.
The failure was discovered by the AOL website, which had hoped to identify the biggest money raiser on the 117-mile long road, only to find that the cameras had caught no speeders at all.
Jim Fitzpatrick, Labour’s road safety spokesman, said: “This revelation is unbelievable.
“The M25 is already used as a racetrack by a number of reckless drivers. If there is one place where we need working cameras it is on that stretch of motorway.”
Edmund King, the president of the AA, also expressed surprise.
“You do see drivers slow down when they pass under the gantries. We know there were some concerns when the signs were changing whether the cameras were keeping up,” he said.
Dec, 13, 2012