Mayor claims speed camera remark 'tongue in cheek'

The Mayor of Greater Lincolnshire has insisted comments she made about wanting to get rid of speed cameras were "a tongue in cheek remark".

Dame Andrea Jenkyns shared a video on social media in which she appeared to suggest speed cameras should be removed when powers from the soon-to-be-abolished police and crime commissioner (PCC) role were transferred to the mayor.

In her video – captioned "speed cameras have been put on notice" – she said: "I'm at the highways conference in Birmingham and there's some speed cameras.

"When I'm police and crime commissioner, I want to get rid of these."

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Jenkyns later said it was "a tongue in cheek remark", hence the wink emoji in the original post.

Some people have criticised the mayor's comments.

Speedwatch volunteer and Weston parish councillor Chris Dicks, a former police officer, said: "She says these sorts of things, makes a statement, gives no reasons, no argument and just waits for the flak to come at her and then she comes back saying 'everybody's having a go at me'."

Dicks said cameras played an important role in road safety, particularly average speed cameras.

"They are probably the best you can possibly have because it does mean that people do have to drop their speed because they can't work out how fast they can maintain, or how slow they can maintain to actually go between the two cameras."

According to Lincolnshire Police, the main causes of deaths and serious injuries on UK roads are speeding, drink and drug driving, failing to wear a seatbelt and using a mobile phone behind the wheel.

In 2025, cameras detected 47,279 offences in Lincolnshire.

Earlier this year, the Lincolnshire Road Safety Partnership said road deaths had fallen in 2025, with 37 people killed in 34 crashes over 12 months, compared with 51 deaths in 45 crashes in 2024.

PCCs are elected officials who oversee police forces, but the government said the role had been a "failed experiment" and is set to hand their powers to local mayors or policing boards in 2028.

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