Exclusive: Crime candidate ‘will scrap speed cameras’

In his first interview since announcing he will take on Lord Prescott, the Labour candidate for Humberside, Godfrey Bloom, UKIP Euro MP for Yorkshire, says victims are being “morally degraded” by lenient sentences and it was a “huge mistake” to outlaw capital punishment. He also promises to remove the vast majority of fixed speed cameras and mothball mobile police speed cameras in Humberside, dismissing them as “a scam to make money”. Such a move would see Humberside become one of just two areas in the country where fixed speed cameras are not in use - the other being North Yorkshire. “Most people now do not have the same view of the police they did 30 years ago,” Mr Bloom said. “That is because most people’s interactions with the police is on traffic and the police are in a hostile place. “A lot of the places where the cameras are is for entrapment, and we all know where they are. “I saw a policeman on the Bridlington Road recently, he had obviously been there all day as families came back from the seaside. Is that a good use of police resources? “He is not doing anything constructive but he is doing something destructive because he is making people hate the police and that is absolutely fatal for society - it has got to stop.” Following elections on November 15, the controversial new commissioners will have the power to hire and fire chief constables, set the force’s budget and establish a five-year police and crime plan to be updated each year. A survey released yesterday revealed fewer than one in five people think the new PCCs will make a positive difference to the support victims receive. Mr Bloom said if elected he would use the position to demand tougher sentences. “If you keep on with this revolving door prison policy you lose resources,” he added. “Police forces across the country have not focused on what people want out of a police service. “They have been morally degraded by failed sentencing policy. “It is impossible to be a policeman dedicated to catching criminals who have been let out within months of their conviction, sometimes for very nasty crimes. “I think that hammers morale. “This will give me a platform so I can say to national government that I will tell them what the problems are while they are cutting the budget and can work with it if they help me. “I can’t work with it if my police keep having to go back to the same guys and arresting them again.” Mr Bloom, who formally begins his campaign tomorrow, says he will resign as MEP if elected. Meanwhile, South Yorkshire Police Authority has appointed its chief executive for the office of the PCC, former deputy chief executive Erika Redfearn.