Ban CCTV cars using parking as motoring stealth tax’ call

By Mike Brooke

MOTORING organisations are preparing to make legal challenges to local authorities which use CCTV snoop’ tactics to raise Town Hall revenues.

They are launching the Motorists’ Manifesto this-morning (Tuesday) which calls for parking enforcement reform.

Lord Lucas and actor Tom Conti have set up a fighting fund for the manifesto which has been drawn up by the London Motorists Action Group, the Drivers’ Alliance and the Motorists’ Legal Challenge Fund.

A fund has been set up to support legal action against rogue authorities’ they claim don’t follow the law.

The manifesto calls for CCTV Smart cars being used by local authorities such as Tower Hamlets in East London and Basildon in Essex to be severely restricted to where traffic wardens are not able to operate or where there are safety issues.

“This is precisely what the Operational Guidance states,” says a joint statement. “But local authorities have scant regard for this and are using CCTV cars for general enforcement.”

The timing of the launch coincides with a document leaked to the Legal Challenge Fund about Basildon Council cruising the streets looking for traffic infringements and issuing fines, catching up to 54 drivers a day with high-tech equipment that can detect if a car is parked illegally just by driving past.

“They brag about how many they can catch with these nasty little cars scanning streets,” said Neil Herron, from Legal Challenge. “These vehicles are just another tool to bring in revenue.

“We hope the public supports the campaign to put an end to parking enforcement as a stealth tax.”

CCTV cars are being increasingly used by local authorities to patrol streets. Tower Hamlets has a CCTV car often used to catch drivers making right turns into Bethnal Green Road from a side turning, which are banned even though there is no alternative route.