Spy-car used to catch out Brighton motorists (From The Argus)
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Spy-car used to catch out Brighton motorists
10:20am Wednesday 10th February 2010
A spy-car armed with a CCTV camera on a periscope is the latest council weapon to be used against illegal parkers.
The high-tech vehicle is being trialed in Eastbourne, Lewes and Brighton and Hove for the next few weeks.
It will be put to use around schools to catch people parking dangerously, especially on keep clear lines.
But its opponents have already described its possible introduction as “sneaky”, “greedy” and part of a “war on motorists”.
No £70 fines will be issued during the trial, drivers will be sent warning letters instead.
But if the vehicle is brought in on a permanent basis, it is predicted the spy car could boost council coffers in excess of a million pounds.
In Waltham Forest, a borough of London with a smaller population than Brighton and Hove, the cars are already in operation and make the council more than £1.3 million each year.
Brighton and Hove City Council, which last year made £7.4 million from parking charges, recently came under fire for increasing charges again at city car parks.
Councillor Geoffrey Theobald, Brighton and Hove's cabinet member for transport, said the move followed crackdowns on dangerous parking at schools, including West Blatchington Primary, Hangleton Way, Hove and Rudyard Kipling Primary, Chalkland Rise, Woodingdean, He said: "For many schools parking around the school gates by a minority of drivers is a persistent problem. This car will be used to remind drivers to park responsibly.
"It will help keep our children safe, and also keep Brighton and Hove moving safely."
Leader of the opposition Labour group on Brighton and Hove City Council, Gill Mitchell, said: “This is really sneaky, and it seems to be the council is trying to wage war on the motorist.”
Comments(44)
tom servo
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10:59am Wed 10 Feb 10
tom servo
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11:01am Wed 10 Feb 10
D Merrett
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11:02am Wed 10 Feb 10
davyboy
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11:07am Wed 10 Feb 10
Spanners
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11:12am Wed 10 Feb 10
D Merrett wrote:agreed - might as well paint "vandalize me" on the side of it
I hope it is not left unattended anywhere as I think it will be the first thing the council need to replace!!!
Spreadly
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11:18am Wed 10 Feb 10
jbee
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11:25am Wed 10 Feb 10
I frequently see idiots by west blat parking on the zig zag lines, in bus stops , over drives and on verges blocking the road.
Not to mention the nut jobs who drive down the pavements to avoid other cars, not seeing the children they are nearly plowing in to.
Please cant they target the selfish parkers who park on the pavement , meaning you then have to walk in the road round the parked car and risk getting hit by the nutters speeding down the road.
PeteBrighton
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11:26am Wed 10 Feb 10
fascinator
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11:48am Wed 10 Feb 10
bug eye
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11:48am Wed 10 Feb 10
Peter the Great
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12:28pm Wed 10 Feb 10
PeteBrighton wrote:Hear, hear to my namesake. If you don't want to get punished, don't break the law.
GREAT!!! The more money that can be gained from illegal parkers, uncaring arrogant people and criminals, the less that decent law abiding people should have to cough up. Bring the cars on. The only people needing to complain will be law breakers and they can easily stop doing illegal activities.
Brigadier Monty
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12:31pm Wed 10 Feb 10
Barry Trotter
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12:35pm Wed 10 Feb 10
What's 'sneaky' about it?
Why bother with warning letters, just because of the way evidence is gathered?
Just go ahead and fine the lazy idiots.
Too many people think 'hazard indicators' are 'park-any-where-ligh
ts'
caeos
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1:16pm Wed 10 Feb 10
zeepee
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1:43pm Wed 10 Feb 10
Thumper Hove
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1:58pm Wed 10 Feb 10
JohnDeHaura
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2:16pm Wed 10 Feb 10
I'm personally sick to death with cars jacked up on pavements, especially on busy motorways where a person on foot would have to walk into the road to continue their journey along the block pavement way.
Too many cars on the road already. The one-person-per-car mentality has to stop. The pollution is getting awful, and I know for a fact that vehicle fumes and their dangerous particulates are a major cause of lung cancers which are on the increase.
We need to get people out of the comfort of their four wheeled vehicles and get them using their legs. Things have to change before it's too late.
Gaz the great
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2:38pm Wed 10 Feb 10
Nyberg
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3:00pm Wed 10 Feb 10
Up here in Hollingdean the main culprits are the taxi drivers who come to pick up the little darlings, as of course they don't think that the rules of the road apply to them.
cookie_brighton
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3:12pm Wed 10 Feb 10
puddingandpi
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3:13pm Wed 10 Feb 10
The comments here about the selfish drivers who park across the pavements are right. Some drivers seem to think that pavements are a parking space or an extra lane for traffic.
As for the parents who drop their kids off (mainly women, sorry to say, but true), they don't give a toss about the safety of children. As long as *their* kids are ok, everyone else can go hang, but they'd be the first to complain if their children got run over.
Whitedot
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3:24pm Wed 10 Feb 10
puddingandpi
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3:37pm Wed 10 Feb 10
Whitedot wrote:Don't get me started on cyclists on the pavement. I was nearly hit by one on the pavement by The Green in Rottingdean. When I said "the road is there, this is the pavement", he told me to f___ off as he cycled off. Coward! If he hadn't whizzed off I would've battered him!
I think cars should drive on the pavement, at least cyclists could go back on the road and feel safe.
pun master
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3:53pm Wed 10 Feb 10
caeos wrote:Surely it would be more cost effective in the long run to simply mount permanent cctv cameras outside schools - that way we wouldn't have to pay for a Noddymobile and the bad parkers would always think twice about their parking if there was a constant risk of a fine (so permanent solution to parking problem outside schools)
why not just get the footage from the buses like the do in london etc?
BTW Love Gill Mitchell jumping on the bandwagon - like her previous Labour led lot never did anything sneaky or OTT parking related!!
Voter99
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4:33pm Wed 10 Feb 10
Saker-Clive
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4:34pm Wed 10 Feb 10
Where is the money coming from to purchase and maintain these vehicles.? I'm thinking £12k + for each one; how many would they buy 3 -5/ then after the initial 3 month period and people begin to behave and comply the vehicles become obsolete!!!!! Man power that is the way forward and it's green.If they want to pay me £12-15k per school term year, I'll do it. What will the vehicles be used for during school holiday times?..............
.............
rayellerton
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4:50pm Wed 10 Feb 10
colz
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4:53pm Wed 10 Feb 10
Da Prof
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5:04pm Wed 10 Feb 10
davyboy wrote:Of course, these CCTV cars cannot distinguish between blue badge holders lawfully parking on double yellow lines and people who are parking there illegally.
parking near schools needs to be a priority. too many lazy/ignorant parents. i have said previously that there should be a 200 metre exclusion zone round schools, where no parking should take place. illegal parking should be jumped on anyway, as it causes disruption to traffic flow. yellow lines and restrictions are there for a reason, and should be observed by ALL motorists, but there seems to be a small group who think they are above regulations and can do as they like. bring on the camera car, and use the money brought in to improve traffic flow, and provide park and ride sites all round the city. if you insist on parking illegally, then accept the fine with good grace, and learn from it. if you are too ignorant or lazy to do so, then that is your problem.
Traffic wardens, on the other hand can do so, and can be used for other traffic related duties.
Bring back proper traffic wardens and do away with the privatised NCP jobsworths.
Da Prof
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5:08pm Wed 10 Feb 10
pun master
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5:27pm Wed 10 Feb 10
Voter99 wrote:Be careful what you say... we know where you live...
and you spineless effing idiots tolerate this Big Brother 24/7 surveillence state rubbish from your beloved Labour government and Tory councils. The people who fought and died for Britain's so called freedom must be turning in their graves.
puddingandpi
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5:34pm Wed 10 Feb 10
Don't speed & you won't have to pay a fine. Don't park illegally & you won't get a ticket.
Why doesn't everyone get it together & boycott motorised illegality? If cameras & parking attendants weren't profitable, they'd be discontinued.
As for "The people who fought and died for Britain's so called freedom must be turning in their graves.", these people fought to stop a particular group of people breaking international law & harming countless others by their actions. They fought against people who thought they were in the right & that they had the right to ride roughshod (to say the least) over everyone else regardless of the consequences & damage done. They thought they could do whatever they pleased & sod everyone else, which sounds very similar to the views expressed by some motorists.
wole
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6:11pm Wed 10 Feb 10
wole
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6:11pm Wed 10 Feb 10
worthinglogic
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6:49pm Wed 10 Feb 10
Parents like to drop their kids right outside school because of all the fear-mongering done by media outlets such as this.
TheInsider
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7:56pm Wed 10 Feb 10
scthetruth
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9:32pm Wed 10 Feb 10
davyboy
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11:35pm Wed 10 Feb 10
worthinglogic wrote:with a camera mounted on a pole, like the picture, it could park in the school grounds and still get the photos needed. no, parents like to drop their kids outside school because, in the main, they are too bleeding lazy to walk a short distance from a LEGAL parking place. like i said earlier, there should be a 200 metre exclusion zone round all schools, so that people could drop off/pick up their kids without worrying about stupid drivers.
So presumably this car has to park legally outside of schools, causing more parents dropping off kids to park illegally because there's no space, as it's all taken up by snoopy. Surely that's adding to the problem?
Parents like to drop their kids right outside school because of all the fear-mongering done by media outlets such as this.
kkj
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1:23am Thu 11 Feb 10
davyboy wrote:A 200 metre exclusion zone is fine and dandy but who is going to enforce it? Theres not even enforcement of the twenty feet of ziz-zag lines in front of the school gates!
worthinglogic wrote: So presumably this car has to park legally outside of schools, causing more parents dropping off kids to park illegally because there's no space, as it's all taken up by snoopy. Surely that's adding to the problem? Parents like to drop their kids right outside school because of all the fear-mongering done by media outlets such as this.with a camera mounted on a pole, like the picture, it could park in the school grounds and still get the photos needed. no, parents like to drop their kids outside school because, in the main, they are too bleeding lazy to walk a short distance from a LEGAL parking place. like i said earlier, there should be a 200 metre exclusion zone round all schools, so that people could drop off/pick up their kids without worrying about stupid drivers.
And what of the residents living within these exclusion zones? Would they be barred from parking in front of their homes?
ArthurD
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7:25am Thu 11 Feb 10
Old Ladys Gin
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8:03am Thu 11 Feb 10
markcorrigan
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9:46am Thu 11 Feb 10
Old Ladys Gin wrote:Nothing wrong with Toyotas.
It's a Toyota!
Infact, I've just bought a new Toyota keyboard, it's greatttttttttttttttt
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t
stevenhove
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9:30pm Thu 11 Feb 10
Spy-car used to catch out Brighton motorists
mark by the sea says...
10:56am Wed 10 Feb 10