SPEED camera bosses today said they would be installing more of their cameras next year after all.

The disclosure comes just three months after the Lancashire Partnership for Road Safety said no more cameras were being installed after April 2004 for a 'year of analysis and reflection'.

But today it was announced that 11 extra fixed site speed cameras were to be installed in the county during that period.

Their exact locations cannot yet be revealed, but some are understood to be in Blackburn with Darwen borough.

A spokesman for the partnership said they had fully intended to stop at 320 cameras.

But he claimed highways chiefs from the county's local councils had been insistent that the 11 additional sites were needed now.

The partnership is still intending to evaluate the effectiveness at reducing accidents of its 320 cameras from April 2004.

Meanwhile, another possible ray of hope for motorists who feel exploited has also been dashed.

In October it was also revealed that the partnership was hoping experts would be able to provide them with cameras which could be switched off at times when accidents were statistically proven not to happen.

The move was aimed at persuading disgruntled motorists that fixed sites were not being exploited to raise revenue.

But the Lancashire Evening Telegraph can today reveal that the partnership's hopes have been dashed as the cameras, which are used elsewhere in Europe, do not meet the government's guidelines in this country.

A spokesman for the partnership added: "We are trying to be fair to motorists. If you go back three years cameras weren't painted yellow.

"We have also moved eight cameras and re-sited them because they were obstructed by things like signs.

"A lot of people see speed cameras as the be-all and end-all of traffic management. They were never designed to do that.

"But they are effective. As a controlled experiment, we left some speed camera sites for six weeks and, as the local community realised, the number of people speeding went up. They are a deterrent."

Last week it was revealed that dozens of East Lancashire speed cameras would be contrary to new government guidelines coming into force in April.

Campaigners called for the offending sites to be axed, but the partnership said that, as the new rules only applied to new and not existing sites, the cameras were in accordance with government policy.