ALMOST 1,000 more motorists in Lancashire have been caught out by speed cameras between April and June this year compared to last year.

The striking rise in the number of people caught speeding follows a change in the speed for which penalty fines are issued.

In January 2001, all cameras in 30mph zones were changed to photograph drivers at 35mph instead of 41mph.

Official statistics from Lancashire Constabulary show that during April, May and June 2000, a total of 4,585 fixed penalty fines were issued, compared to 5,397 this year.

The reduction in speed came about under new guidelines from the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), which stated that cameras should be set nearer the actual speed limit which they were trying to enforce.

A spokesman for Chorley Police's Road Policing Unit, said: "All automatic speed detection cameras are set at an appropriate level for the speed limit in each section. People doing 35mph or more in a 30mph zone will receive a fixed penalty fine of £40 and three penalty points."

Under the new guidelines, the speed at which offenders are photographed is worked out by ten per cent of the speed limit added to two miles per hour.

Despite the view of many motorists that the reduction is a way of bringing more money into police coffers, the spokesman said: "As far as we are concerned people are committing an offence and the most important thing for us is to reduce the number of casualties on the roads.

"In reducing the penalty speed we are trying to make speeding as socially unacceptable as drink driving because there is no doubt that speed kills."

Meanwhile national newspaper reports this week suggested six more police forces have been given the green light from Transport Secretary Steven Byers to join the 'direct income' scheme which allows money from penalty fines to be pumped back into the individual force for such things as wages and equipment.

Chief Inspector Ian Bell from Lancashire Police said: "We have made a bid to join the direct income scheme but we are awaiting official notification of whether we have been successful." By Tim Ash

tash@lancashire.newsquest.co.uk