The fixed speed cameras in Tidworth and other parts of Wiltshire could return but everything depends on whether funding becomes available from central government, an area board was told on Tuesday.

The cameras have been mothballed rather than sold off and will return whenever funding for the Wiltshire Safety Camera Partnership becomes available, said cabinet member for highways Dick Tonge.

Coun Tonge, the member for Corsham and Box, told the Marlborough board that Wiltshire had received the same funding for road safety for the past three years, with a major proportion funding the speed cameras.

“The last government said we could have it but this government has taken it away,” said Coun Tonge who is a leading member of Conservative-controlled Wiltshire unitary council.

“The only alternative we were left with was to close down the speed cameras.”

Wiltshire has to wait until November to find out what level of road safety grant it will get for 2011-12.

He said: “Some people love speed cameras but some people hate them. The ones who hate them are the ones who get caught.”

Speedwatch, one of a number of anti-speeding measure adopted by parishes in which volunteers use speed cameras provided by police, will continue across the county.

Inspector Andy Noble, commander for Marlborough and Devizes, said the police force would also be hit by spending cuts but pledged: “Any cuts will not be in the areas immediately visible to local people.