MOTORISTS have responded sceptically to a Government announcement that in an assessment of all 5,500 roadside speed cameras in the country, not one was incorrectly sited.

Paul Mandel, from Buckhurst Hill an observer for the Institute of Advanced Motorists and a member of the Association of British Drivers said: "One suspects really, and I'm very sad to say it, that this review amounts to nothing more than a whitewash."

The Department for Transport's review involved writing to the 42 safety camera partnerships, including Essex, requesting assurances that its guidelines were not being breached.

George Steel, of Hereward Green, Loughton, who has been campaigning for several months for more information about cameras in Epping and Loughton, said: "What else did the Government expect them to say?"

But he was delighted by an admission made in the announcement. DfT officials revealed that although Government guidelines maintain that fixed cameras are supposed to be sited where speed-related incidents in the last three years have caused serious or fatal injury to at least four people per kilometre, or one person per 400 metres, councils or police have the power to place cameras virtually anywhere they wish.

The department said: "The rules ... do not preclude cameras being placed at sites that do not meet the guidelines if they contribute to the overall strategy aimed at reducing road accident casualties."

Mr Steel said: "For the first time, it has been made public that the Essex Safety Camera Partnership can use its own criteria to install cameras. Now this is in the open it will no longer need to be reticent in producing figures for our local cameras. The time has come for open government and public accountability.

"We need to see the figures to open objective discussion about camera locations, leaving aside the emotion about whether speed cameras are right or wrong.

"How can anybody accept that they are in the right place when they are based on secret information?"

An Essex Safety Camera Partnership spokesman said: "The Government guidelines were only introduced a few years ago, while we have had cameras in Essex since 1993, based on accident and speeding survey results.

"We are always open to public enquiries and can provide the baseline data for the three years prior to the installation of almost every camera.

"We are are also trying to collate more up-to-date figures for accidents and speeding incidents in the last three years. Once these figures are available they will be put up on our website."

The partnership is responsible for 600 sites across Essex and regularly reviews the level of enforcement necessary for each.

Cameras are graded red, amber and green. Those which are red are the most fully enforced, while green-graded sites receive a reduced level of enforcement.

The spokesman added: "Obviously the details of which cameras are not fully enforced are not open to the public, else it would defeat the preventative safety objectives of the installations."