WARRINGTON Road Safety Partnership is taking to the streets on a mission to stop speeding motorists.

The joint initiative between the police, Warrington Hospital, the fire brigade, magistrates and the borough council aims to cut the amount of accidents on the town's roads by using a specialist speed detection vehicle.

The purposely-adapted marked transit van will be used to warn motorists of speed restrictions and later enforce them on targeted routes.

To buy, modify and operate the vehicle for a three-year period will cost around £28,000, but with the average cost of an injury accident standing at £56,000, if only one accident is prevented, the money will be recouped.

The vehicle will be operated by police and local authority staff where required.

Clr John Joyce, chairman of the environmental services committee, added: "We have to work together.

"Warrington's traffic accident statistics are going in the wrong direction and this is one of the only ways we can get them down."

The initiative received the wholehearted support of the environmental services committee.

Clr Brian Maher said: "You can't put a price on anything that saves lives."

Council and police representatives visited Northamptonshire where such vehicles are already in use.

They have experienced a 12 per cent reduction in accidents and the scheme has become self-funding with fines from speeding motorists being reinvested.

John Rowson, assistant director for operational services, said: "We will give people the opportunity to conform to speed limits before we charge them.

"If we warn them first they get everything they deserve if they break the law."