SPEED cameras have probably done more to alienate the average law-abiding citizen than any other single measure since the introduction of the poll tax.

Yet astonishingly while the latter was brought in unashamedly to raise revenue, speed cameras were said to have been sited solely to save lives - OUR lives as motorists and pedestrians.

But while that reason for their existence was accepted at the beginning, it is true to say that today the majority of East Lancashire motorists no longer believe it.

That's quite simply because cameras are now all over the place - sometimes at roadsides where no one can remember anyone being killed.

They are also often at spots where, for example, motorists coming over the brow of a hill within the speed limit have to brake to avoid going a few miles an hour on the wrong side of it and then seeing the flash in their rear view mirror.

Public cynicism about speed cameras will be heightened by today's news that 53 of our 117 cameras may have been installed outside the government's guidelines but those responsible say they are not about to consider moving them.

By taking this stance the Lancashire Partnership for Road Safety is simply fuelling the worst suspicions of many motorists - that the Partnership is little more than a tax collecting agency for the government.