SPEED cameras will not be disappearing from Lancashire’s roads just yet, according to road safety campaigners.

The Government’s decision to end road safety grants to local authorities has led some councils in England to switch off the unpopular Gatsos.

However, Linda Sanderson, from Lancashire Road Safety Partnership, said there were ‘no plans in the forseeable future to change the way we operate’.

There are currently 290 fixed speed cameras on Lancashire’s highways as well as six mobile enforcement vans rotated around 155 sites of ‘community concern’ plus 70 ‘core sites’ as part of the casualty reduction strategy. In 2008/09, Lancashire’s fines total was £2,238,960, according to the Taxpayers’ Alliance.

Lancashire County Council contributes £2million, from the Treasury, towards the Road Safety Partnership each year.

Ms Sanderson said: “Funding comes from central government to highways authorities for road safety interventions.

"How each authority uses that road safety grant is up to them.

“At a local level we will prioritise where we see the need and currently there is no change. Our funding is in place until March 2011.

“If the government decide to claw money back then things may change.”

“Speed cameras are a really cost-effective way of carrying out enforcement on the highways.”

Burnley MP Gordon Birtwistle said:“I think mobile cameras are far more effective that fixed ones, where people slow down and then speed up straight after the’re past.”