A POLICE bike-mounted camera has clocked up 903 speeding motorists in just two months and officers are warning it is ready to catch plenty more.

Traffic safety experts at the Wiltshire and Swindon Road Safety Partnership which is made up of representatives from Wiltshire County Council, Swindon Borough Council, the Wiltshire Constabulary and the Highways Agency have been shocked at the high number of speeding motorists caught since the camera went out on the road in the middle of June.

The bike was used for an hour or two each day between June 14 and July 27. As a result, 903 drivers have been sent notices of intended prosecution for speeding and 16 face prosecution in court for driving at excessive speeds.

David Frampton, the manager of the partnership's safety camera unit, said: "People are just being silly. There is no reason to travel at these speeds and, with 49 fatalities on the county's roads already this year, we are looking at a very serious situation.

"To be perfectly honest, I thought with the amount of publicity our safety cameras have had, we would be catching very few motorists speeding. That has not proved to be the case and it is very disappointing."

The introduction of the bike-mounted camera came from demands from parish councils to monitor traffic speeding through villages and along narrow rural roads, where an estimated 80 to 85 per cent of traffic is exceeding the speed limit.

Mr Frampton said: "On these roads you cannot have the usual camera van without obstructing the motorists' view of the road, so the motorbike was the answer to the problem."

Bought by the partnership from money collected in speeding fines, the 650cc Honda Deauville carries the same speed enforcement equipment as the vans do. But Mr Frampton denied that more vigilant use of speed cameras was purely a revenue-raising exercise.

He said: "That would make no sense for us. We can only use revenue from fines for our own expenses and the rest goes to the Treasury. The Department for Transport says that we can't operate at any location that hasn't got a documentary history of deaths and injuries from road traffic collisions.

"We react to written complaints we have received from parish councils. The bike is clearly marked and is accompanied by a police officer in uniform. We are not out to entrap motorists, we are trying to reduce the carnage on county roads."

"The best result will be when nobody's caught. We want to see these figures reduced and people driving at safe and legal speeds. I want drivers to be aware of the motorcyclist who's there to deter speeding motorists and for them to drive accordingly."

The safety partnership's motorcycle team is also targeting other motorcyclists in an effort to reduce deaths and injuries among this vulnerable sector of road users.

Mr Frampton said: "Bikers talk to other bikers and they have a lot of respect for motorcycle cops. Education and information is half of what we do and we have found that motorcyclists are very receptive to a quiet, common sense chat."