MOTORISTS have paid more than £6.5m over the past year in speeding fines and speed awareness course fees.

Thames Valley Safer Roads Partnership collected 48,399 fines, totalling £2.9m, from motorists between April last year and March this year who were caught speeding past fixed and mobile speed cameras.

Most drivers were given three penalty points on their licence and ordered to pay a £60 fine but cases involving very high speeds were taken to court.

The total was an increase of 6,000 fines issued, compared with the previous 12 months.

A further 47,295 speeding drivers paid a £79 fee to avoid the penalty points and take a road safety awareness course instead, which took the total paid by drivers in the Thames Valley region past £6.5m.

Partnership pokesman Dan Campsall said: “We have seen quite a substantial change in driver behaviour in a relatively short period of time and a large part of the change is due to enforcement.

“Cameras are slowing traffic and reducing casualties.

“We have also improved our effectiveness in processing the fines.”

In 2003-4, which was the last year before speed awareness courses were available, 111,646 drivers were fined for speeding.

In 2006-7 speed cameras caught 75,248 drivers and in 2005-6 this figure was 90,833.

There were no separate figures for Oxfordshire.

Andrew Howard, head of road safety at the AA, said: “Vehicle speed in 30mph zones is dropping and casualty rates are at the lowest they have ever been and falling further still.”

All the fines are handed to the Government, which funds the safer roads partnership.