SPEED camera officials have been accused of releasing “misleading” figures after it emerged fewer drivers were breaking the law at a camera site since Oxfordshire’s cameras were switched off.

Last week, Thames Valley Safer Roads Partnership claimed a roadside camera on the A44 in Woodstock had seen an 18.3 per cent increase in speed offences since the switch-off compared to the number caught earlier in 2010.

At the same time a radar inside a second camera in Watlington Road, Blackbird Leys — which cannot take pictures of offenders — registered an 88 per cent rise in offences when compared with figures in the previous two years.

When The Oxford Times requested data for the Woodstock camera for 2008 and 2009 to make an equal comparison we were told those figures were not readily to hand.

Now The Oxford Times has obtained the information it shows speed offences actually fell by four per cent at the Woodstock camera, close to Blenheim Palace, during five days of monitoring since the switch-off on August 1, compared to offences committed between 2008 and 2009.

Woodstock town councillor and former mayor Peter Jay said: “This is lies, damn lies and statistics.

“It’s always wrong if anyone misuses figures and if a public authority misuses them it’s not only wrong but a disgrace.”

Mr Jay, who is opposed to the switch-off of speed cameras in the town, added: “I think people will look three times at anything they say in future.”

The speeding figures released last week came ten days after the county’s 72 fixed speed cameras and seven traffic light cameras were switched off on August 1 as Oxfordshire County Council withdrew £600,000 of funding.

The chairman of the Oxford group of the Institute of Advanced Motorists, Mark McArthur Christie, said: “People have been very accepting of partnership statistics in the past and taken them at face value.

“If this gets people questioning camera stats that’s a good thing.

“The problem for the partnership is once people feel misled they feel reluctant to believe you a second time.”

When speed cameras were in operation in Oxfordshire the partnership employed just seven speed cameras across the county’s network of 72 sites.

It now has radar cameras in four sites including the two where the controversial figures were obtained.

The Oxfordshire representative of the British Motorcyclists Federation, Hugh Jaeger, said Oxfordshire’s 17,500-strong biking community has been put at even greater risk by the decision to switch off the cameras.

Mr Jaeger said: “Safety cameras are not perfect, much like democracy, but it’s the best system we’ve got. If you withdraw a safety measure you have to put something in its place.”

Partnership spokesman Dan Campsall insisted there had been no deliberate attempt to mislead the public about the figures.

He said: “I don’t think there’s anything we have done that is disgraceful or lies and damn lies.

“As we have always maintained, these remain limited data sets and there is a great deal more study that will need to be undertaken to determine what the increased risk at decommissioned camera sites is.”

He said the inconsistency in the figures arose because the partnership were evaluating speeding data for a live broadcast on Radio 4 and wanted to get the most recent set of data prior to the decommissioning of cameras in 2010 to show the impact of the switch-off.

However due to roadworks the Watlington Road camera had not been in operation this year so the partnership has to use historic figures from 2008 and 2009 instead of the 2010 comparison for Woodstock.

The leader of the county council Keith Mitchell said: “This does back up what I have been saying that we have got to wait a while to get some real information on this.”