Since its launch a week ago the Safe Speed official petition to scrap speed cameras has gathered over 9,000 signatures to become the 'rising star' on the 10 Downing Street web site.

It is now ranked 13th overall out of 3,077 Downing Street petitions. In the 'Transport and Infrastructure' group it is ranked 2nd out of 460.

See: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/scrapcam

Paul Smith, founder of the Safe Speed road safety campaign(www.safespeed.org.uk) said: "Drivers know that speed cameras are the wrong policy and don't make the roads safer. If fact, we even know that speed cameras make us into worse drivers. Why the DfT doesn't know this is anyone's guess, but this is our chance to tell them."

"We earned ourselves he safest roads in the world long before we had speed cameras. Since cameras, we're falling back fast. We must return to the policies that gave us the safest roads in the world in the first place; policies that value skills and attitudes."

"I urge every driver to sign the petition. We have to force Department for Transport to treat us with respect and value our skills. Our skills and attitudes are the basis of road safety, so it isn't surprising that speed cameras don't work."