MAPLETON – An automated speed enforcement camera will be installed in front of Drayton Heights Public School early next year.
It’s part of a Wellington County pilot project that will see one camera in each of the seven lower-iter municipalities.
Initially, the plan was for one camera to move between four Mapleton school zones, on Wellington Roads 8, 10, 86 and 11.
This was changed because provincial legislation “does not allow for” one camera to move between multiple locations, Mayor Gregg Davidson said during a Mapleton council meeting on Oct. 8.
He said the company behind the pilot project, Global Traffic Group, analyzed all of potential camera locations offered by the county and “picked the top ones” with the most significant speeding.
Davidson, chair of the county’s roads committee, said camera signs will be up around Oct. 15 and cameras should be installed in January.
“The recommendation is that a few months after that, we implement more cameras,” Davidson said.
“And after the one-year pilot, that’s when it will be pushed out to the local municipalities to also participate on local roads.”
He noted the threshold for speeding will not be made public.
County councillor Earl Campbell, who attended the Mapleton meeting to provide updates from county council, said the cameras will record, take photos and automatically issue tickets to owners of cars that surpass the speeding threshold.
The cameras cannot issue demerit points, Campbell noted, but the ticket is “based on a very strict tolerance.”
Davidson said money from fines will go to the county and be “put right back in the system again,” including to pay Global Traffic Group’ for the “camera … maintenance and everything else.”
