ten downing street

Police plan to map all journeys made by drivers on major roads and store the data for five years.

A national network of roadside cameras will be able to read 50 million number plates each day enabling officers to reconstruct the movements of motorists.

But civil rights campaigners have questioned why the data needs to be kept for so long and want reassurances on who will be allowed to access the information.

The project relies on automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras which pinpoint the time and location of all vehicles on the road.

Police originally said they only wanted the information for two years but were forced to admit the five year plan following a Freedom of Information Act inquiry.

It revealed the database will be able to store as many as 18 billion license plates by 2009.

Thousands of CCTV cameras have been converted to read ANPR data while mobile cameras have been installed in patrol cars and unmarked vehicles at the sides of roads.

Even police helicopters are equipped with the new equipment.

The director of Privacy International last night said the five year record was "unnecessary and disproportionate" and has lodged a complaint with the Information Commissioners Office.

Simon Davies from Privacy International said the database would give police "extraordinary powers of surveillance."

The Association of Chief Police Officers said all forces, bar two, would be linked to the database by the end of the year.

Simon Bynre, who heads ACPO's ANPR policy said: "Experience has show there are very strong link between illegal use of motor vehicles on the road and other types of serious crime."

It comes as the Department of Transport announced plans to roll out average speed cameras on roads. The cameras, which prevent motorists from slowing down to avoid being caught by traditional systems, are currently only used through roadworks.

Brian MacDowell, spokesman for the Association of British Drivers said: "Drivers will be staring at their speedometers rather than concentrating on the road ahead. It is even more a case with these cameras because you know you are being clocked at two different points.

"Speed cameras have produced a state of war between drivers and the Government and it will jut go on and on. "