SHEPWAY'S five fixed speed cameras snared more than 700 motorists in a year, official figures show.

Extensive data on road accidents, the types of injuries drivers' suffered and the average speed of traffic on roads with cameras has also been published.

The statistics, compiled by the Kent and Medway Safety Camera Partnership, show 732 motorists were found breaking the speed limit in the district in 2010.

They were given fixed penalties, court referrals or ordered to take part in a speed awareness course.

The camera on Sandgate Esplanade caught 322 offenders. A further 244 speeding drivers were caught on Seabrook Road, 95 were snared on Littlestone Road B2071, 45 on London Road and 26 on Canterbury Road.

There has been a drop in the number of casualties on most sites since the devices were installed.

The camera on Sandgate Esplanade was fitted in 2003 and was moved a few hundred metres west towards Hythe in 2007. There were 49 casualties – deaths or injuries – in the eight years prior to the installation but only 27 in the following eight-year period.

On Seabrook Road, there were 55 casualties between 1990 and 1999, but once the camera was installed in 2000 there were just 35 between 2000 and 2009.

On Littlestone Road, there were 32 casualties in the five years before a camera was installed in 2006. In the following five-year period, there were 12.

On London Road, casualties numbered 13 in the six years prior to the camera's installation in 1996 and remained at 13 over the following six years.

The camera on Canterbury Road was installed in 1998. There were 28 casualties in the eight years before then and 22 in the eight-year period after.

Sandgate parish councillor Tim Prater, who is also a Lib Dem county councillor for Folkestone West, said: "Some cameras in the county seem to be there just for revenue, but I'm pleased that we're seeing this impact on casualties here."

Chief Inspector Andy Reeves, head of roads policing for Kent Police and chairman of KMSCP, said: "The casualty figures speak for themselves and show that safety cameras have reduced the number of people killed or seriously injured at camera sites."