Some motorists - or at least those who noticed - may have breathed a sigh of relief when the safety camera disappeared from its pole on the Loose Road at the start of this week, but their respite will be short-lived.

There has been no decision to permanently remove the camera from its spot on the A229 just below the Wheatsheaf junction. Instead the old wet-film camera is being replaced by a new more efficient digital version.

Colin Evans of the Kent and Medway Safety Camera Partnership said: “We awarded supply contracts earlier this year for the replacement of all our aging stock of wet-film cameras to new digital technology."

He said: “The Plains Avenue/Loose Road site is one of three safety cameras that will be part of an initial installation trial to test our supplier’s processes and procedures.”

The location of the other two trial sites has yet to be decided.

The partnership is renewing all its cameras, which include fixed-spot speed cameras, red-light enforcement cameras and average-speed cameras.

The old Traffiphot-manufactured camera head that was on the pole at Loose Road was not compatible with the new technology. It will be replaced with a new digital head “soon” and the camera is expected to go live in September.

The road carries a 30mph speed limit.

Mr Evans said: “As we haven’t had any experience with the new digital kit yet, it is difficult to say what impact they will have - if any - on offence numbers; that’s one of the reasons we are trialling a small number of sites in line with good project management principles.”