When the average speed cameras are being switched on in London Road has been confirmed.

The first of eight sites across Lancashire is to go live in Preston on Thursday (23 March).

The yellow cameras have been in position on the 0.7mile stretch from the Capitol Centre at Winery Lane to Albyn Street East since January.

But they haven’t been enforcing the 30mph limit during this period.

Now Lancashire Police say from first-thing on Thursday the cameras will be tracking motorists.

They use number plate recognition technology to detect vehicles and calculate the speed over the fixed points.

New signs are going up in London Road to say the cameras are live.

Lancashire Constabulary’s assistant chief constable Tim Jacques said: “As I said earlier this year when we announced plans for the average speed scheme, we simply don’t want to catch motorists speeding.

“These routes all have a significant record of collisions resulting in both death and serious injury. It is our aim to reduce these numbers and for all drivers to adhere to the safe speed limits on our roads.

“With the first route now set to go live, we want road users to comply with the limit and play their role in making our roads safer for everyone. We know that during our test phase over the past few weeks, an average of 100 motorists a day would have been detected speeding by the cameras.

“We are striving for a Lancashire where we prevent all collisions that result in death or serious injury and I am confident that using this type of enforcement will play a vital role as part of this vision.”

Read more: Where the seven other average speed cameras will be in Lancashire

The London Road camera is being installed as a response to a number of crashes at the site, including one in July last year where motorcyclist Robert Symonowicz died.

A further set of average speed cameras are due to come in at Brockholes Brow.

What time do the cameras go live?

They start from 00.01am on Thursday (23 March)

What is the penalty for speeding?

There will be sanctions for anyone detected breaching the speed limits, where eligible they will be given the opportunity to attend a speed awareness course to learn about the dangers of speeding, accept a conditional offer of a fixed penalty (currently a £100 fine and 3 penalty points) or for higher speeds the matter may be referred to court.

What do you think about the average speed cameras? Let us know in the comments below