Members' feedback to the speed cameras and radar detector feature article


Tim Hipwell (Oxford Blue 1133) from Cornwall responded saying "as a member of the Project Board for The Devon and Cornwall Safety Camera Partnership, I am glad you think we are "enlightened". Thanks for including the link to our website. We want to get speeds and casualties down and we have no qualms about signing our sites, painting the boxes yellow and advertising their position on our website." .

Tim Hipwell (Oxford Blue 1133) under one of the brightly painted speed cameras down in Devon & Cornwall. (Photo: Tim Hipwell)

Tim mentioned later that the "Devon and Cornwall Safety Camera Partnership is made up of representatives of the highway authorities of Devon, Cornwall, Plymouth, Torbay and the Isles of Scilly (for legal reasons we had to include the islands even though they don't have any cameras) plus the Devon and Cornwall Constabulary, the Magistrates Courts and the Crown Prosecution Service. As part of the "netting off" process, we are allowed to keep a proportion of the fines collected from safety cameras with the proviso that any income is spent on the running, upkeep and purchase of new equipment and other road safety initiatives.
Contrary to tabloid press all cameras must be sited at sites with a known accident record. In addition we feel that "transparency" is the way to go. We do not want to alienate motorists but to educate them. Our cameras are highly conspicuous as you can see from the photo complete with my ugly mug - I don't think it will scare the children!!!" It certainly scares the V8 Webmaster though! (9.2.04 & 5.2.04)

Devon & Cornwall Safety Camera Partnership

Price of speed. A recent letter in The Sunday Times noted that a correspondent "who complained about an increased insurance premium after a speeding fine, will not be pleased to know that his insurance will be loaded for four years. That is despite the fact that the DVLA remove the penalty points after three years!" (13.6.04)


V8 Register - MG Car Club



Valentine One installed in the windscreen mounted clip, but you will need to note the requirement in the UK that nothing should be placed within the swept area of the windscreen.

So what does the Valentine One look like, how does it rate compared with other detectors on the market, and how can you get further information?

Further information on the Valentine 2

Back to Feature article on speed cameras
Dr Gavin Bailey (BRG 0766) from Surrey responded saying "I've had radar detectors for a number of years and upgraded from a 'cheapie' to a Valentine One bought from eBay last year. It's very sensitive and the fact that it will distinguish between different types of radar and even indicate the source is very worthwhile. I also took advantage of the upgrade service offered by Valentine, and shipped my old unit out to the states and got them to send the replacement new unit to my hotel in New York, where I was spending a long weekend. It all worked fine and from memory the upgrade price was a very reasonable US$99. At present they do not ship upgrades outside the US, so you have to ask a friend to help or arrange a long weekend somewhere in the US so the unit can be mailed there!

An additional point I would make is that with the recent introduction of the combined radar detector and GPS units (which receive updated data on camera locations via the web), there are now units which offer more than the Valentine as they do not rely on the cameras being 'detected' before giving a warning. The only downside is the relatively costly monthly subscription required to update these units.

Lastly, Valentine offer accessories and I also got a useful remote display which plugs into the cigarette lighter. I use this in my MGBGTV8 as it keeps the flashing warnings usually seen on the on the face of the unit out of sight as fitting the remote display blanks the main screen!" (8.2.04)
Further responses, comments or views are very welcome on this topic.
RADAR1 speed cameras
RADAR2 information on the Valentine 2
RADAR3 members' feedback
RADAR4 proposed ban on radar detectors
RADAR5 useful links
RADAR7 unused Valentine for sale