A CONTROVERSIAL Newton Abbot speed camera which has caught 12,000 drivers breaking the limit in the last year has been replaced.

Now a local councillor wants to know why, amid speculation that the original camera may not have complied with regulations.

And, he says, that could even call into question the validity of the speeding tickets already issued, each landing a driver with a fee between £85 and £100.

The camera at Ashburton Road in Newton Abbot has caught 12,000 drivers doing more than 30mph since it was installed in August 2025.

Supporters say it has cut speeds on the busy road and improved safety as a result, but it also attracted criticism for being hard to see from the driver’s seat. One driver said it was ‘invisible’.

It has now been replaced by a more substantial – bright yellow – camera installation.

Vision Zero, the organisation that seeks to end road fatalities and improve safety, says the camera has been taken down and moved to a new pole to make it easier to see.

But that has prompted local Teignbridge councillor Phil Bullivant (Con, Bradley) to question the way the camera was installed in the first place.

At a recent meeting he called on the council to ask the highways authority why the camera had been installed, who decided when and where it should be installed, and how many people had been issued with tickets for doing 35mph or less?

He also wanted to know if the installation in Ashburton Road met national standards for speed camera locations.

He told the meeting: “Speeding is unacceptable at any time, but it appears that the installation of this camera does not conform to national standards. If you put in an installation it has to conform to the standards, and this does not.”

Now that the original camera has been taken down and replaced, Cllr Bullivant has submitted more questions to the highways and traffic orders committee which takes care of Teignbridge traffic issues.

He said the original camera had been installed on a lamp post without the visibility or prominence of other traffic cameras across Devon, but he had been assured that it fully complied with legal requirements.

“Subsequently, the camera installation has been replaced by a much more prominent structure that does match other installations across Devon,” he said. “As the committee members gave the original information that the installation was fully compliant, why was the installation changed and what was the cost?

“Also, if the original installation was assessed as not meeting installation requirements and therefore needed replacement, what impact does this have on the over 12,000 speeding tickets issued by the original installation?”

A spokesperson for Vision Zero said: “This camera has just been moved to a new pole to make it more visible.” Devon County Council has also been approached for comment.