ESSEX drivers face yet more average speed checks after cameras went up on the Dartford crossing.

The cameras have been installed on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge by the police and Highways Agency.

They claim the cameras are needed to improve road safety and smooth traffic flows on the bridge.

But anti-speed-camera campaigner Captain Gatso criticised them as another revenue raiser.

Captain Gatso, who refuses to reveal his real name, said: “People are still getting killed on Essex roads, the only difference is the police have got themselves a nice little revenue raiser. These average speed cameras are spreading like a cancer, first it was the A127, then it was the A130 and now these.”

The average speed cameras, also known as Specs, work by recording a vehicles speed between points, unlike conventional cameras that only clock speed at one fixed point.

Stuart Thompson, a Highways Agency spokesman, said the cameras were going through routine checks before they are switched on.

He added: “We will be informing the public as soon as we get the go ahead.”

The new cameras won the support of the head of a courier firm which regularly uses the bridge.

Mark Giles, of Abbey Couriers in Basildon, said: “Sometimes you see people driving on the motorway and you think ‘that’s just an accident waiting to happen’.

“Anything that stops that sort of thing has got to be good.”

“As a courier firm, a snarl-up on the bridge can cause us a real headache.

“Hopefully the cameras will mean a crash is less likely.”

After switching on the A127 cameras in January, operators Essex County Council had to turn them off within a month because they did not work properly.

However, both the A127 cameras and those on the A130 are now functioning properly.