A FRESH call for fixed speed cameras in speeding hotspots across Craven has been made to the district's new police inspector.

Inspector Julie Battle was asked at a meeting of Craven District Council to take away an appeal to North Yorkshire Police to reconsider its policy against the use of fixed speed cameras.

Councillor Andy Brown suggested a way forward could be to use both mobile police safety camera vans and fixed cameras as a way of tackling speeding and poor driver behaviour.

In places such as Cowling, Hellifield and Long Preston, the only solution to speeding was fixed cameras, working 24 hours a day, he said.

"The only thing that will work is the knowledge speeding will end in a fine and points if you don't slow down in that location, " he told the meeting of the crime and disorder committee.

"I would like to press North Yorkshire Police to rethink the absolute that it will never have fixed cameras and have perhaps a mixture of the majority as mobile, but with fixed cameras in particularly impacted communities."

Asked how it was that places to site the mobile camera vans were made, Insp Battle said they were mainly based on casualty numbers and vehicle accident hot spot areas.

She said there was also a system where members of the public could register issues with speeding traffic in perhaps a village or stretch of road on the North Yorkshire Police website. Those complaints would be reported into the Traffic Bureau and an assessment made whether the site was suitable for the siting of a camera safety van. The sites, she said, needed to be safe and visible.

Cllr Carl Lis said he and his fellow councillors in Ingleton had been trying unsuccessfully for some time to get the speed limit on the A65 through the village reduced from 40mph to 30mph.

"We are constantly told that statistically there is not an issue, but it if we have an incident, that is too late," he said.

There was a large supermarket on one side of the road, and an industrial estate and the situation had changed, but it seemed impossible to get anyone to support it.

He said: "Police have supported this in the past, but we could do with that support again. There are so many junctions, it is just incredible to understand how Long Preston can be 30mph, how Hellifield can be 30 and everywhere else, but not Ingleton. I am totally at a loss, there are constant near misses."