SPEED cameras are pitted along the roads of East Lancashire and, by some, are already regarded as the scourge of motorists.

Police have been accused of making fast money through fines.

The Lancashire Partnership for Road Safety -- a collaboration of councils and the police -- caused controversy earlier in the year when it revealed it aimed to make £20million from speeding fines, prompting claims that cameras were little more than money-making machines.

Now police have vowed to crackdown even further by setting up mobile traps just yards from the fixed sites.

They plan to catch drivers beating the fixed cameras within a 500 yard radius at 74 well-known traps.

Opponents of the plan have labelled police as "sneaky" and claimed it is evidence that cameras were not making roads any safer and just shifting the problem of speeding motorists to new locations.

Kevin Delaney, traffic manager at the RAC, said: "There is something sneaky here. If cameras aren't working in locations they shouldn't be there and alternative ways of controlling the speeds of drivers should be looked at."

A spokesman for the Association of British Drivers said: "This just shows that they are moving the speeding problem on o other areas.

"They can't place cameras everywhere and this is a sneaky way of making money."