More than 1,500 fixed speed cameras were not working last year, and hundreds of them will never be switched back on, says a report in The Sun.  Britain has 3,189 Gatso cameras, and last year 1,522 of them were out of action – 48% of the total.

In 2010, 37% of them were not operational, and in 2009 32% of them weren’t, although most remain in place in order to ensure that drivers continue to slam on their brakes on sight of them. The increase in non-functional cameras is the result of a £38m funding cut by the Government.However, after Avon and Somerset very publicly switched off all its cameras last year, accidents in which speed was a factor fell by almost a third, says The Sun.

Derbyshire has turned off 92 of its 117 cameras, while the Metropolitan Police force no longer uses 565 of its 754.