CRITICISM continues to mount against road safety bosses behind the "provocative" mobile speed camera marshalling motorists on Marlow Hill.

Letters and emails have flooded into the Free Press, with furious road users fearing they are being targeted as "cash cows".

But, in the latest turn of events, schools on the busy High Wycombe hill have entered into the debate claiming traffic calming measures benefit child safety.

John Constable, deputy head at John Hampden School, said: "There are around 3,000 pupils coming out of the (three) schools at roughly the same time every afternoon, not to mention a large number of parents.

"Any measures that are put in place to make the area safer we are obviously in favour of. Speed cameras aren't the answer, but they're helpful in that they make the area less dangerous for students."

Luke Marson, of Cairnside, High Wycombe, said he was "gutted" to have been hit with a ticket after overtaking a heavy goods lorry at 38mph.

The 23-year-old said: "I was stuck behind one of those huge lorries. It was crawling up the hill. I did exactly what I'm supposed to I indicated, checked my mirror, pulled out and overtook the lorry.

"Next thing I know I've been done for speeding. What's unsafe about that? What's the point in having a dual carriageway if you can't overtake on it?"

Last week the Free Press told how Thames Valley Safer Roads Partnership refused to reveal figures relating to the revenue raised by mobile camera 265.

The partnership says that releasing these details will be detrimental to road safety because it would allow motorists to ascertain its strategy.

But there was no sympathy for the Safer Roads Partnership for Gary Parker's fiance, whose ten-year unblemished driving record came to end when she was zapped twice in a week.

A £120 fine and six penalty points prompted the question, "Does a dual carriageway on an incline really require a 30mph limit?"

Steve Warren, who owns Motor Services in Marlow, added: "When we fell victim to car crime some time ago we phoned our local police and they were nowhere to be seen. Yet give them a speed camera and they act like bees around a honey pot."

But the argument for the Safer Roads Partnership is that speed enforcement forces drivers to slow down thereby reducing the chance of accidents.

The Safer Roads Partnership maintains all of its speed cameras are used to improve road safety, not to raise revenue.

The Department for Transport, said: "Bodies responsible for deploying cameras are only able to claim back their costs, which ensures they have no incentive to place cameras other than to improve road safety. "