SPEED cameras look set become a permanent fixture on roads in Cumbria from April. As yet there are no permanently installed speed cameras anywhere in the county and the police rely on mobile speed guns. But the South Lakeland area committee of Cumbria County Council is today (Friday) expected to back plans for the installation of fixed cameras on some dangerous roads - the notorious stretch of the A590 through High and Low Newton could be a prime candidate. Do you think safety cameras make our roads safer? Join our online discussion in the News - Fedback Forum section.The plans come from the Cumbria Safety Camera Partnership which was set up in 2003 by CCC, Cumbria police, the Highways Authority and Cumbria Magistrates Court Service to reduce deaths and injuries on the county's roads by 15 per cent over three years.Partnership spokesman Kevin Tea told the Gazette: "We are at the very early planning stages and have not agreed where they might go yet." But he did identify the A590, which last year claimed nine lives and saw 21 serious injury accidents, as one of the worst roads in the county.The partnership has been monitoring speeds on the A590 and has clocked cars at 116mph, motorbikes at 121mph, vans at 106mph and wagons at 83mph. "That is the sort of thing we have to contend with," said Mr Tea.He said fixed cameras could be destined for "a handful of sites" where it was too dangerous for police to deploy mobile units.Keen to tackle the perception that police and local authorities treat speed cameras as cash-cows', the Government has said Safety Camera Partnerships such as Cumbria's cannot make a profit. Once the costs of the cameras and running the partnership have been met, any extra cash from the £60 fines handed out must go into central Government's coffers.But the introduction of fixed cameras is still likely to prove controversial as opposition to speed cameras grows across Britain. Lancashire has more than 300 fixed speed traps and police there say there have been several instances of cameras being vandalised and even removed altogether. According to the Government, excessive speed is the prime cause of serious accidents and that rural roads are a particular problem. It claims an average reduction of one mile per hour on rural, single carriageway roads would reduce the number of crashes by between four and nine per cent and that a two mph reduction in average speeds across Britain's road network would save 300 lives a year.The Parliamentary Advisory Committee for Transport Safety said deaths and serious injuries had been reduced by more than a third at speed camera sites.But opponents argue the Government's predilection for speed cameras is ill-conceived and counterproductive.John Thornley is the Cumbria representative of the Association of British Drivers which campaigns for "realistic speed limits", improved standards of driver training, and "an end to the abuse of speed cameras".He accused the Government of "a huge misinformation campaign" about speed cameras and claimed that far from improving road safety, speed traps had actually stopped or slowed the annual five per cent reduction in road casualties which has been the trend over the last 30 years as roads and cars have improved.He pointed out that Cumbria Safety Camera Partnership's own website (www.cumbriasafetycameras.org) carried figures showing that the number of road deaths in Cumbria had risen from 49 in 2001 and 2002, to 55 in 2003 when mobile cameras were introduced. According to Mr Thornley and the ABD, inattention rather than excessive speed is the main cause of crashes and that speed cameras exacerbated the problem by making drivers concentrate on speed limits instead of on the road ahead. Cumbria Safety Camera Partnership is expected to unveil its list of proposed sites for fixed speed cameras at a meeting of its steering group next Friday, January 30.See News - Gazette - Comment for more views.