Make them more visible!

That was the resounding cry of Echo readers.

Out of the 128 calls received by the Echo phoneline, 115 readers wanted police speed cameras to be more visible, while just 13 callers thought they should be hidden.

In north Essex, the Echo's sister paper the Colchester Evening Gazette recorded 42 in favour of making cameras more visible, with 13 against.

The survey has been given added weight by This Is Essex which recorded 173 people backing calls for cameras to be more obvious, opposed to 38 who were against.

Our surveys add fuel to the debate which is currently raging across the country.

The Government is considering making the grey speed cameras more visible.

But Essex police say they have no intention of backing the moves and says its cameras are already working successfully to reduce speed and accidents.

One caller summed up the views of many others: "I think the police should give motorists a rest and concentrate on the real criminals that are about."

Another said: "If the police are interested in slowing down the traffic, I believe they should paint the cameras bright colours so they are visible.

"People would then slow down."

Another caller added: "If speed cameras are to prevent accidents they must make people slow down, therefore they must be visible.

"If they are hidden people just speed through and all that achieves is more money for the police and Government. Surely the idea is to prevent accidents not to raise money."

A Burgess of Basildon said: "I now spend more time looking at the side of the road than where I am actually driving. This is supposed to be a safety measure.

Roger Marsh, who owns a business in Westcliff, said: "If the police have an objection to these cameras being seen, I would like to know what it is because as a professional sprayer, I would be more than happy to paint all the cameras in my town, for absolutely nothing so they can be seen.

"If they are purely there to generate money this is obviously why the police have objections to them being seen, they are not in accident black spots, they are purely there to generate money for the police. "

However, some readers believed cameras should be hidden from view.

A reader said: "I feel the speed cameras should not be visible. Why should we let the speeding motorists see where the cameras are, so they can slow down when they approach?"

Another added: "They charge up and down our road, it is disgusting, I think there should be more speed cameras."

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.