The appearance of dozens of traffic cameras on busy routes across the West Country have been explained by highways chiefs. People have been questioning the reasons behind the installation of the cameras alongside the M5 near Weston and on other busy routes including the A370.
National Highways has now revealed the reasons for the cameras and say they are being used for surveys to inform the latest traffic modelling around junction 21 of the M5. A total of 60 cameras have been installed at 60 locations alongside the M5, on roads north and south of Weston-super-Mare and across the A370 and A371.
The surveys have been taking place throughout the week and were due to finish last night (May 17). The cameras will then be removed. National Highways south west planning team leader Lisa McCaffery said: “We have installed traffic survey cameras in a number of Weston-super-Mare locations which will record vehicle volumes to update our traffic modelling for junction 21 of the M5.
READ MORE: M5 traffic stopped after lorry 'leaves the carriageway'
“National Highways has a legal obligation to process data when carrying out public tasks such as traffic counting surveys, and we ensure that the right safeguards are in place to keep information safe. The cameras will simply be counting vehicles for traffic modelling purposes only.”
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