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MP says standing in Taxi rank was frightening.
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Birmingham Post
May 17, 2007, Thursday
Speeding ban a postcode lottery, says Tory MP
Andrew Barrow
A Conservative MP who failed yesterday to get his driving ban overturned has criticised "inconsistencies" in the law which left motorists facing a postcode lottery.
Brian Binley (Northampton South) found himself with 12 points on his licence after he was caught doing 37mph in a 30mph zone in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, in August last year.
The 65-year-old MP, who already had nine points on his licence for speeding, was given a six-month ban by magistrates in Towcester in March.
Mr Binley appeared before Judge Richard Bray at Northampton Crown Court to appeal against the ban, saying he needed his car to reach constituents in his rural seat.
Judge Bray rejected the appeal saying: "Though we accept that there can be inconveniences for him, we find that he has the resources to provide transport for himself during the short six-month disqualification."
Speaking after the hearing, Mr Binley said: "If anyone wants proof of the inconsistency in this area of law, they have just found it."
He admitted speeding in his Jaguar X J6 on London Road in Wellingborough but said he appealed because of the hardship the ban would cause to his constituents.
Songwriter Sir Tim Rice faced magistrates in Northampton two months ago and was banned from the road for just 28 days.
Mr Binley said: "Tim Rice was in exactly the same situation but he got banned for 28 days and I got banned for six months.
"That sort of inconsistency is concerning."
Mr Binley, a constant critic of speed cameras which, he says, do little to prevent serious accidents, said motorists faced a postcode lottery on whether or not they were prosecuted.
He went on: "If you are caught speeding in Wiltshire you only have a 48 per cent chance of being prosecuted but if you are flashed in Northamptonshire it is 81 per cent. There is massive variation across the country.
"In some counties the camera doesn't flash unless you are doing 15mph above the 30mph limit but in others it flashes just a few miles an hour over the limit."
Mr Binley said the prospect of using taxis or public transport could severely hamper his ability to get to more rural parts of his constituency.
He said: "I broke the law and I have to pay the price. I argued whether many of my constituents would suffer as a result of my foolishness and I maintain that I am sorry about that.
"I'm going to try to do my job to the best of my ability."
Mr Binley had been caught speeding on three previous occasions in the last four years, the court heard.
On the last occasion he was just six weeks from seeing three points wiped off his licence.
He told the court that buses from his home in the village of Hackleton were infrequent and did not serve outlying parts of the county.
He accepted he was earning more than pounds 74,000 in salary and expenses but argued that he could not afford, or could not find, a driver to take him to his constituency meetings which, he said, took 58 hours over a long weekend.
Mr Binley and his wife had recently queued for a taxi in the centre of Northampton late at night, an experience he described as "absolutely frightening".
During the hearing, Judge Bray appeared to agree with Mr Binley's assertion that rural bus links were "simply not adequate".
Insurer will overlook camera points
An insurance company is no longer automatically penalising motorists with points on their licence due to the rise in the number of speed camera convictions.
The Swinton insurance company said insurance providers were "having to accept that points alone can no longer be used as a yardstick for driver evaluation".
And the company added that drivers with six points or more on their licence could soon be viewed by insurance companies as "standard" rather than "non-standard" drivers.
Motorists who incur 12 penalty points over a period of three years are liable to be disqualified.
The anti-speed camera group Safe Speed said the Swinton move showed that cameras were damaging the penalty points system.
Swinton said that with 6,000 speed cameras on the road catching two million speeders every year and drivers using hand-held mobile phones now incurring three-point penalties, "an unblemished licence is becoming rare".
GRAPHIC: Brian Binley: Six-month ban; Sir Tim Rice: 28-day ban; Inconsistencies in the law on speed cameras have come under fire
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