ACCIDENT blackspots throughout the county will be monitored by new speed cameras in a bid to cut the number of deaths on the roads.

Fixed and mobile cameras will soon be catching law-breakers in the 25 or 30 worst areas in Hampshire for speeding - but the police have not yet revealed where these blackspots are.

Traffic Superintendent John Baldwin, based at Whitchurch, said: "We will be deploying these cameras with a view to reducing the number of people killed and seriously injured on the roads each year.

"There is a 28 per cent reduction in people killed and seriously injured at camera sites.

"We want to get away from the public perception that speeding is permissible to society in the way that drink-driving is no longer permissible.

"Speeding now causes more deaths than drink-driving."

The police are advertising for tenders for the fixed cameras, which are being funded by the Government and should be installed by June, and will be increasing the number of routes on which they use the mobile cameras.

The static cameras will be painted bright yellow, while the police using the mobile cameras will be in marked police cars, so they should be easily seen from the roads.

Roger Kimber, chairman of the Basingstoke borough's road safety council, said: "I think using brightly-coloured cameras is sensible thinking.

"They must make these cameras very visible to the general public."