by political editor Paul Francis

Kent County Council says it is to review the effectiveness of its speed cameras.

But it has ruled out any immediate plans to scrap them altogether.

The council is among several cutting back the amount of money being spent on speed cameras because of budget cuts this year.

Others, such as Oxfordshire County Council are moving towards scrapping speed cameras altogether because of the spending squeeze.

Cllr Nick Chard (Con), KCC's cabinet member for highways, said a decision to pass less money to the Kent and Medway Safety Camera Partnership was not a signal that the demise of speed cameras was imminent.

The county council has already agreed to cut money that had been due to be spent on speed cameras by £508,000 this year as part of £15m savings.

Cllr Chard said he wanted an assessment of how effective they were before deciding what steps to take.

"Safety has to be paramount and if they [speed cameras] are contributing to safety then we will give them very careful consideration. We are not being dogmatic about it and do appreciate there are instances where they help safety. But where they are just generating income, we are not so keen."

He added: "We have not discussed scrapping them but we do want a review of them and I intend doing that by the end of the year."

In 2008, cameras in Kent detected 50,000 offences and, since the partnership was set up, there has been a 63 per cent reduction in the number of people killed or seriously injured at safety camera sites.

The coalition government has nationally cut £38m from road safety programmes as part of the spending cuts.