New figures released by the Department for Transport show there were 345 fixed and mobile speed camera sites across the county in 2006/7, placing Lancashire behind only London and mid and south Wales.

Meanwhile the number of traffic officers in Lancashire has dropped to a five-year low. There are now just 184 officers patrolling Lancashire roads – a fall of 13 on the year before and the lowest since 2002.

The number of speed cameras represents a huge leap from five years ago, when there were just 63 fixed and mobile speed traps.

In fact the number now is more like 360, according to the Lancashire Partnership for Road Safety. And that does not include 'sites of community concern', where mobile cameras can be placed.

Today community leaders and motoring groups accused the county of having the wrong priorities.

Lancaster and Wyre MP Ben Wallace said: "The local authority should be spending money not on cameras but on police to patrol our back roads and country roads where more and more people are being killed.

"These cameras do nothing but collect money."

Mr Wallace's constituency in particular has seen a number of high profile accidents in recent years.

Since 2002, when speed cameras started to increase, a total of 23 people have been killed on the A583, A585, A588 and the A584 – with a further 169 seriously injured.

But John Davies, project manager at the Lancashire Partnership for Road Safety, said: "Speed cameras are effective at reducing road casualties in the areas that we have placed them.

"The percentage reduction at these sites is about 42% for killed or seriously injured accidents, so they are an effective means of improving road safety – and that is their primary function."

Adam Cracknell, of the RAC, said: "We always want to see more police officers on the roads, that is the best deterrent you can have. It is not just about speeding, it is about talking on mobile phones or people not wearing seat belts and obviously speed cameras cannot pick that kind of thing up."

Nigel Humphries, of the Association of British Drivers (ABD) said: "This just illustrates everything that is wrong with speed cameras.

"Speed cameras make things worse by taking traffic police off the road. A speed camera can't catch drink drivers or someone who is driving like an idiot and just slows down for the camera."

Captain Gatso, campaigns director of the Motorists Against Detection (MAD) group, said: "This government has chosen to enforce the law through roadside cash machines. Clearly they are a very blunt instrument. All the speed cameras do is to further damage the police-public relationship."

Ribble Valley MP Nigel Evans said: "Cameras are no substitute for police on the beat . Despite the fact that cameras have mushroomed, there has not been a reduction in road accidents year-on-year."