The Flemish Government has announced that from next year, every speed camera along the region’s roads will be switched on permanently. The decision to ensure that all speed cameras in Flanders are switched on all the time is expected to generate an additional 50 million euro per annum for the Flemish exchequer.
The Flemish Prime Minister Matthias Diependaele (nationalist) is keen to stress that the decision to ensure that all the cameras are kept switched on 24/7 is “not a new tax”, but rather an example of stricter enforcement that will make the region’s roads safer. “People that abide by the speed limits will not be affected”, Mr Diependaele told the Flemish Parliament during his September Declaration on Monday.
Currently, fines issued to motorists caught speeding by speed cameras in Flanders are processed via a federal system that is managed by the police and the Federal Justice Department. Outdated servers and limited capacity have meant that some Flemish speed cameras have been inactive, in some cases for many years. Furthermore, the Flemish Government says that under the current collection system that is managed at a federal level too much revenue from fines is skimmed off before it reaches the Flemish coffers.
Therefore, the Flemish Tax Authority intends to invest 5 million euro in the development of its own system that should be up and running next year. Once it is operational the all the region’s speed camera will be able to operate all the time.