ANOTHER speed camera has been vandalised in East Dorset.

The attack on the device in Golf Links Road, Ferndown, is the fifth against cameras in the district in seven months.

Cllr Lesley Dedman, who chairs the town council’s traffic working party, said new initiatives were needed to curb speeding in Ferndown.

“Golf Links Road had to have speed cameras and traffic calming measures installed – at a cost to the taxpayer – because of the excessive speed drivers used on this quiet residential road,” she said. “I think this incident against a speed camera – which is specifically designed to reduce speed on an unsafe road – shows how much we need a new strategy in Ferndown to make life safer for our community.”

Daily Echo readers contacted the paper on Friday with reports that the device – between the Sainsbury store at Tricketts Cross and Parley – had been damaged by fire.

The spate of incidents began last August with an attack on a camera in Three Legged Cross. A second strike followed in the same month in Verwood.

Tyres were hung around the camera on Ringwood Road in Longham and set alight last November, drawing criticism from Ferndown mayor Cllr Queenie Comfort, who said the attack could have cost lives.

Vandals began the new year by setting fire to the camera near the Bear Cross roundabout, not realising the empty housing did not contain a Gatso device.

Dorset Police announced last December its plans to replace the fixed cameras with devices that measure a vehicle’s average speed.