NEW speed cameras have been installed in a bid to slow down drivers at two accident blackspots in Bournemouth.

A fixed camera recently appeared on Talbot Avenue, between Cemetery Junction and Bournemouth University.

Another has been installed at the junction between Bath Road and Exeter Road.

Pat Garrett, project manager for Dorset Safety Camera Partnership, said: "Two new cameras have been installed in Bournemouth but neither will be operational for three or four weeks.

"Statistics show there has been one fatal, six serious and 42 minor accidents at the Bath Road/Exeter Road site from January 1, 2001 until December 31, 2003.

"At Talbot Avenue, during the same period, there has been one fatal, two serious and 29 minor accidents.

"Both sites are subject to 30 mph speed limits but figures show that four per cent of drivers are travelling at more than 45 mph which is very worrying."

The new cameras are being installed as part of the partnership's ongoing plans and do not signify another wave of cameras elsewhere.

Talbot and Branksome Woods councillor Pamela Harris said: "I don't know whether we've got a need for a lot of them.

"I don't mind if they cut speed from a safety point of view, which I gather the ones on Wessex Way have done over the years, but I can't see that there's much benefit from most of them."

She said traffic on Talbot Avenue "did not move very much anyway because there's so much of it."

She added: "I wouldn't have thought it was particularly beneficial."