Revealed: Birmingham New Road speed camera is a fake, council admits
Dudley Council has admitted that a ‘speed camera’ it installed on one of the Black Country’s busiest roads is a fake, the Express & Star can reveal.
The region’s police chief David Jamieson has accused the authority of deceiving the public after bosses installed what he said was nothing more than ‘a metal box’.
The camera was set up in March on a notorious stretch of the Birmingham New Road, near the junction of Woodcroft Avenue on the Dudley-Sandwell border.
Council chief executive Sarah Norman admitted it was fake and is part of a wider scheme to dupe the public into believing that a number of speed cameras in the borough are still functioning.
She admitted the camera was ‘not operational’ and said ‘any deception’ was intended to deter drivers intent on breaking the speed limit.
A Freedom of Information request by the Express & Star revealed correspondence on the issue between Mrs Norman and West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner Mr Jamieson.
Describing the situation as ‘an embarrassing episode’, Mr Jamieson wrote: “I am deeply concerned that the safety camera that your council has installed on Birmingham New Road is in fact a fake and is not intended to be operational.
“It really should not be described as a safety camera. It is a metal box.
“By installing a camera that isn’t functioning, a deception has been placed on the public and confidence in road safety measures has been undermined.”
Mr Jamieson went on to demand that the council ‘urgently clarify the situation with the public’.
In response Mrs Norman wrote: “We have relocated an existing camera housing to a site on the Birmingham New Road to help address a long-standing problem with speeding in that vicinity.
“This is not the first time Dudley have relocated an obsolete camera and is therefore not an isolated initiative.”
She continued: “It goes without saying we are not keen to promote the fact that all static safety camera housings in the borough are non-operational as they would cease to be a deterrent.”
Mrs Norman added that the police endorsed practice of using ‘dummy flashes’ in fake cameras was ‘still regularly used and no doubt will continue to be used in the future’.
All speed cameras in the Black Country were switched off when the Safety Camera Partnership was dissolved in 2013, although a number of camera housings have remained in situ.
