Drivers are seeing yellow as grey speed cameras across the county are made more visible to warn drivers to slow down at accident blackspots.

The Thames Valley Safer Roads Partnership (SRP) has to ensure that speed cameras, at sites where there have been a high number of casualties on Oxfordshire's roads, are an eye-catching yellow by June 30.

Pete Smith, communications manager for the Thames Valley SRP, said yellow cameras and signs warning drivers they were entering a speed enforcement zone were being introduced to conform with Government regulations.

Mr Smith said: "For the last two years, the Government has allowed local authorities to claim back some of the money they spend on installing and monitoring speed cameras. "The money comes from the fines drivers pay when they are prosecuted for speeding.

"But for us to be able reclaim some of that money we have to conform to certain rules."

He said the colour change would make the enforcement process clearer to drivers, so they did not feel they were being trapped unfairly.

A total of 300 speed cameras are being converted across the Thames Valley.

Between April 2000 and April 2001, more than 67,000 drivers were caught speeding in the Thames Valley region, owing fines totalling £2.19m. Figures for the past 12 months are expected to be released shortly.

The number of motorists prosecuted for speeding rose by 26 per cent compared to the previous year, when 53,000 drivers were caught. Thames Valley police has 18 speed cameras, which are moved around the region's 300 camera sites. About 120 of them are on Oxfordshire's roads.

Drivers can still be prosecuted if they are caught speeding by grey enforcement cameras, but the safer roads partnership will not be able to claim its share of speeding fines from unmarked cameras after June 30.

Mr Smith refuted accusations that speed cameras were simply an easy way of raising money from motorists.

He said: "There is no profit because you can only claim back from the Government what you spend in speed enforcement.

"The bottom line is that we want motorists to slow down. By highlighting where speed cameras are, we are warning drivers they are in a risky place and need to slow down. If they still get caught on camera, then they have no excuse for their behaviour." The Thames Valley SRP, made up of the police, local authorities, magistrates courts and the Crown Prosecution Service, has seen the number of road deaths and serious injuries in the region fall by six per cent each year since it was formed in 1999.

Edmund King, executive director of the RAC foundation, welcomed moves to make speed cameras more visible.

He said: "If speed cameras are well-targeted the objective should be to get people to slow down."