Under the law, speed cameras should be used to enforce safe driving and not to raise money

A police force that plans to raise money by permanently switching on all its speed cameras on the M1 would be breaking the law, the transport secretary has said.

Olly Martins, the police and crime commissioner for Bedfordshire, threatened the 24-hour-a-day activation of cameras that are at present used to enforce only temporary speed restrictions.

He said that also targeting drivers who broke the normal 70mph limit was being considered as a way of gathering cash because his force was in such a dire financial position. He claimed that the move could raise £1 million a year from April next year, which could pay for 25 frontline officers.

Patrick McLoughlin, the transport secretary, warned that Mr Martins’s proposal would be against the law, because the