Labour rakes in speed cash

SPEEDING tickets are bringing in £200 a minute- a rate four times higher than when Labour came to power.

The huge rise in income has followed a massive expansion in the number of speed cameras on our roads.

The Home Office hs revealed that 1.8million tickets are now being issued each year, or 4,850 a day.

In 1997, only 713,000 fixed penalty notices were handed to drivers.

Cash raised has rocketed from £28.5m a decade ago to £106.4m in 2006. Tory police reform spokesman David Ruffley , who obtained the figures, accused ministers of treating motorists like "cash cows".

He said: "The number of tickets issued for speeding has increased 150% under Labour. Coupled with an increase in the basic speeding fine, this means speeding tickets are now raising over £100m a year.

"Ministers need to tell us what they are doing with this £100m a year." Matthew Elliott of the Taxpayers' Alliance said: "The law is discredited and devalued when politicians use it more as a way of making money rather than fighting crime." A Department for Transport spokesman said: "Safety cameras are there to save lives, not make money."