FIXED speed cameras in Dorset have had their day.

Plans are under way to slowly phase out the majority of fixed speed camera sites across the county and replace them with cameras that calculate the average speed of vehicles between two points, the Daily Echo can reveal.

There are currently 39 fixed camera sites in Dorset and the aim is to gradually change those on key strategic routes to SPECS speed cameras which work out a vehicle’s average speed.

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SPECS are commonly used to enforce speed limits on dual carriageways and motorways.

Dorset Police’s Assistant Chief Constable, Adrian Whiting, said the fixed cameras had “done their job” but it was now time to move on to new technology to help further reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured on our roads.

He said: “We are not going to sack all of them but move away from them to ‘time over distance’ cameras and carry on with mobile cameras at sites where the public have asked us to deal with reports of speeding motorists.

“I don’t know if we are going to do away with every fixed site camera as some are for traffic light junctions and can also monitor speed but we are not going to invest in any more fixed. We will decommission them where we have achieved a good casualty reduction and believe we are not going to reduce it any more. Once we have done that there is no point to keep running it.”

Swindon axed its fixed speed cameras earlier this year and fingers have shown the number of deaths on its roads fall to zero.

The Dorset Safety Camera Partnership, which is part of Dorset Road Safety Strategic Partnership, will disband but the agencies and organisations will continue to work towards keeping the roads safer by rolling out SPECS, continuing with mobile enforcement and officer patrols as well as educating drivers about the dangers of speeding through the use of the Driver Awareness Scheme.

Mr Whiting said fixed speed cameras have helped reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured on Dorset’s roads since the safety camera partnership was formed in 2002. Between then and 2008, there has been a 40 per cent reduction in Bournemouth borough, a 31 per cent reduction in the Borough of Poole and a 38 per cent reduction across the rest of Dorset.

Mr Whiting said Dorset is in the process of preparing funding bids for the new cameras and hoped to see the SPECS being rolled out across the county in the next 12 to 18 months.