FURIOUS motorists sick of being caught by speed cameras are costing North tax payers thousands of pounds by vandalising them.
More than a dozen of the controversial cameras — which some people see as a tax on motorists — have been attacked in the region in the past 18 months.
They cost as much as £15,000 each to repair, and some in speeding hotspots are being repeatedly targeted.
Vandals have used spray paint, grease and superglue to try and obscure the lenses, with some extremists even going so far as to set the cameras on fire.
One of the favoured techniques is to place a used car tyre over the square box housing the cameras and set it alight.
The most targeted was in Northumberland on the A1 at Hebron Road Ends, which has been vandalised three times in the past year and a half.
Another favourite for the anti-camera brigade is one on the B1296 Old Durham Road in Gateshead. In the past 18 months, Northumbria Safety Camera Partnership has spent £25,020 on repairs to 11 damaged cameras.
Anti-speed camera campaigner Captain Gatso — campaigning director of Motorists Against Detection — claims the attacks are a direct result of motorists feeling they are being persecuted. He said: “Motorists feel under siege. Car drivers and motorcyclists are being forced off the road with greater taxation, expensive fuel and bus lanes which do nothing to ease congestion.”
He also argued that Durham police have adopted the right approach by refusing to have any fixed-site speed cameras.
He said: “We believe cameras are counter-productive. In Durham, you don’t have fixed speed cameras. Instead, road safety relies on traditional traffic policing rather than a machine which measures speed over a few hundred metres.
“Durham has proved that they can keep the roads safe and reduce accidents without having to resort to speed cameras.”
In the Cleveland force area, there are only two fixed-site speed cameras, neither of which have been vandalised. In Cumbria, three have been attacked.
To prevent more attacks, the local Safety Camera Partnership decided to spend £42,000 on extending the height of their 12 cameras so vandals can’t reach them.
A spokesman said: “A camera we have had vandalised is in a location where we used to have multiple fatalities. Since it was brought in, we have had none.”
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