Instead they use us as passive "milch cows", taxing and fining us to the brink of bankruptcy.
Fines are a favoured means to extracting money as Brandon Lewis, the local government minister, has noted. He has drawn attention to the fact that councils are using CCTV to issue motorists with parking fines on an “industrial” scale.
Big Brother Watch has found growing numbers of local authorities are using the cameras to monitor parking offences and other traffic contraventions, in the five years to the end of March 2013 drivers have been fined at least £312M because of these cameras.
At least 36 local authorities across England and Wales are using static CCTV
cameras and at least 58 are using cameras mounted on cars.
Lewis is quoted by the Telegraph in response to the report:
“It is clear that CCTV is being used to raise money in industrial volumes for town halls, breaking the constitutional principle that fines should not be used as a source of revenue.
Unreasonable parking charges and fines push up hard-working people’s cost of living.
If parking is too expensive or difficult, shoppers will drive to out of town supermarkets or just shop online, undermining the vitality of town centres and leading to ‘ghost town’ high streets.
That’s why the Government intends to clampdown on this clear abuse and misuse of parking CCTV.”Emma Carr, deputy director of Big Brother Watch, said:
“The fact that no councils publish proper statistics about how these cameras are used highlights that many know that their CCTV operation is about raising money, not about public safety.
The Government rightly wants to reign in this unjustified surveillance, so councils are turning to desperate arguments about public safety to justify their cameras, despite having absolutely no evidence to back up their claims.
The use of CCTV and spy cars for parking enforcement should be banned.”Peter Box, chairman of the Local Government Association’s economy and transport board, pooh poohs the suggestion the CCTV is being used to raise revenue:
“It is frustratingly familiar to hear Big Brother Watch again peddling the myth that councils are enforcing parking regulations just to raise money.Well, he would say that wouldn't he?
Road safety campaigners, schools, disability and pedestrian charities and councils have all come together to warn the Government that banning CCTV parking enforcement will put school children and disabled pedestrians at risk and worsen road safety.”
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I have heard "officers" from a local council on the local TV news, stating that a proposed "safety camera" would raise £1M......To me, that sounds like a money making scheme if ever there was one.....Kerching.
ReplyDeleteI see Peter Box uses one of Nanny's preferred coveralls: Won't somebody think of the children........
As I have said before; When the criminal justice system is used as an extension to HMRC, both are brought into contempt.