COUNTY Hall chiefs have pledged not to go camera crazy as they set about trying to make Lancashire's roads safer.

Lancashire County Council, in conjunction with the two unitary authorities, has started a pilot project which involves using money from road-related fines being used to pay for road-safety improvements.

Over the next three years, the county council is expected to get around £7million from the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions. It will also give £1.2million of its own cash to supplement the scheme, which aims to help the police reach its target of reducing the number of people killed or seriously injured in accidents by 40 per cent.

Other aims include a 50 per cent reduction in the number of children killed or seriously injured and a 10 per cent reduction in slight injuries, all by 2005, five years ahead of Government targets.

Currently, some 9,000 people are injured in road crashes, of which 1,000 are seriously injured and 70 people killed. If the project is successful, 580 fewer injuries will occur and 40 lives will be saved, helping to cut health costs by £9.6million.

A report to this week's meeting of the Lancashire County Council cabinet committee outlines how the project will succeed. A massive education and publicity initiative will be launched with the aim of changing people's attitudes towards speeding, drink-driving and the use of seatbelts.

A spokesman for the county council said: "This will be the most ambitious and largest local government media activity of its kinds in the UK.

"It will give the public of Lancashire the information which will enable them to re-appraise their attitude to speed in the knowledge of the potential consequences before being exposed to intense enforcement activity."

Speed awareness courses will also be offered to drivers who are slightly over the limit as an alternative to prosecution.

But the report has acted to allay councillors' concerns that the project will lead to speed cameras being indiscriminately placed across the county to help increase the number of fines.

The spokesman added: "Police activity will be centred on known high incidence crash hot spots and vulnerable areas such as school routes. But cameras will not be used at hotspots indiscriminately. The first option will be to determine whether engineering measures can be used to obtain casualty reduction."

A 'speed map' will also be produced to see if publicity has an affect on certain speed and casualty hotspots before cameras are installed.

The whole project is the result of a partnership between councils, Lancashire's health authorities and the Lancashire Magistrates Court. The scheme began on October 1 but will be officially launched on November 21.