MORE speed cameras could be installed on moorland roads above Bolton, covering motorists in Edgworth, Turton and Belmont, under a new Government scheme due to be announced today.

Lancashire Police Force is to be considered in a scheme which allows money raised from speed cameras to be used to increase the number of devices on the roads.

Police will be told to make the cameras visible and not to use them simply to generate income.

Transport Minister John Spellar will claim the plough-back-the-fines 'hypothecation' scheme has been a big success in eight trial areas, reducing the amount of speeding and the number of accidents.

But pressure group Transport 2000, which is opposed to ever-greater car use, expressed "real concern" that the scheme, which allows police to retain fines to pay for more cameras, would be limited initially to another four forces.

The eight existing trial areas are Thames Valley (Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Oxfordshire), Essex, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Cleveland, Glasgow, South Wales and the city of Nottingham.

They are more than half way through a two-year trial that will end next April.

The Government report is expected to hail the experiment as a resounding success, with fewer casualties and the number of tickets issued across the eight forces more than doubling.

Transport 2000 assistant director Lynn Sloman said: "The speed camera trials have saved lives. We know that 109 people have escaped death or serious injury in the eight police trial areas as a result of cameras.

"Deaths and serious injuries at some camera sites have fallen by as much as 60 per cent. It is pathetic that only four more local authorities are in a position to take up the scheme right now. Such a successful scheme should be ready to go nationwide.

"We can only conclude that some ministers, and some local authorities and police forces, are running scared of the motoring lobby. Hundreds of people will now be killed in car crashes because of this failure of nerve."

She added: "Recent opinion polls show that seven out of 10 motorists believe speed cameras save lives. There should really be no argument about introducing more cameras in every part of the country."

It is understood Lancashire is one of four areas the scheme is likely to be rolled out to. North Wales, Derbyshire and Staffordshire are also included.