Sir – Councillor Mitchell (Letters, August 26) seems to be labouring under the impression that his decision to switch off Oxfordshire’s speed cameras was entirely due to a cut in funding by the coalition Government.

In fact, the Government cut the grant by £300,000, whereupon councillor Mitchell took the decision to cut the contribution to the Safer Roads Partnership by double that, £600,000. Locally, Liberal Democrats are not in coalition with the Tories, and Oxfordshire Liberal Democrats are looking for ways to keep speed cameras operational, to reduce accidents, save lives and save the huge costs of accidents, in both financial and human terms. It has emerged that some at least of the cameras could have been kept operational if the county council had only reduced their contribution by the £300,000 they had lost in grant.

We proposed to fund the £300,000 needed to retain cameras by reintroducing car parking charges in Oxford in the evenings and on Sundays. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents estimates the cameras save 100 lives nationally a year — does councillor Mitchell really not think this should be a priority in his budget decisions?

As the Roads Safety Partnership spokesman Richard Owen said: “If Oxfordshire changes its mind, the rest of the partners would welcome discussion about recommissioning some or all of their camera locations.”

I hope that councillor Mitchell may pause in his zeal for cuts just long enough to decide where the priorities should lie — are there perhaps other ways to keep cameras in use — or is it more important to him to allow drivers to park free of charge than to save lives by reducing speeds?

Jean Fooks, Deputy leader of the Liberal Democrat opposition, Oxfordshire County Council