Broken promise on school zones

 

 

August 01, 2010

MORE than 900 drivers were booked for double parking, speeding or talking on their mobile phone each day in school zones last year under beefed-up road laws - but the NSW Government has broken its promise to spend every cent on road safety.

Exclusive data obtained by The Sunday Telegraph from the Office of State Revenue shows penalties issued in school zones rocketed from $26.6 million in 2007 to $34.1 million last year following the introduction of heavier fines and demerit points for school zone related speeding and parking offences.

In 2006, when then-NSW roads minister Eric Roozendaal announced the roll-out of 50 new school zone speed cameras, he vowed that "all revenue from them will be put straight back into road safety".

Four years and more than $111 million in school zone fines later, Mr Roozendaal, now Treasurer, has broken his promise.

The NRMA and Auditor-General slammed the RTA for refusing to disclose where school zone speed camera revenue is spent.

An Auditor-General report into road safety near schools condemned the government for hiding the information and in a recommendation called on the RTA to be more transparent.

"We have not been able to obtain enough information to form an opinion whether the balance of the revenue is allocated to road safety," the report states. "The RTA should determine and publish progress on the commitment made by the Minister for Roads in 2006 as to the amount of revenue raised by school zone speed cameras and how much of it is reinvested in road safety projects."

NRMA senior policy adviser Mark Wolstenholme said the Government should be forced to provide a detailed breakdown of how funds are spent.

"School speed cameras and higher fines were supposed to result in extra funds for school safety but there is no way of tracking if this is actually happening," he said. "We want the RTA to produce a comprehensive list of projects funded each year and details on the cost of each project."

He said NSW should follow the Queensland government's lead and be obliged, by law, to hypothecate its speed camera revenue and report annually how revenue is spent.

The state government has never revealed how speed camera revenue is used.

In NSW, fines are usually pooled into consolidated revenue and then distributed accordingly. Of the $34.1 million in school zone fines issued last year, speeding accounted for 77 per cent of infringements.

Nearly 135,000 drivers were caught speeding by a fixed camera. Thousands of other parents were booked for double-parking, talking on a mobile phone and disobeying road signs.

Opposition roads spokesman Andrew Stoner said: "State Labor has gone back on its word by failing to reinvest speed camera revenue into road safety projects.

"Speed cameras should be used to deter speeding on our roads, not to raise revenue."

An RTA spokeswoman said the government has invested $520m in safety since 2007.

Telegraph

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