Havering Council denies legal threat in row over school traffic camera

Gary Kakoullis says he suffered weeks of stress and anxiety after a baseless legal threat he claims the council issued which could have cost him thousands of pounds.

He claims Havering put up a traffic camera on the wrong pole, then sent an enforcement officer to threaten him for allegedly blocking its view.

The council denies any legal threat was made, but the Recorder has seen emails sent by Gary shortly after the visit in which he relayed the alleged comments.

“[The officer] verbally threatened us with legal action,” he insisted.

Works to Gary's house in Heath Park Road required scaffolding, but the council ordered him to take it down (Image: Charles Thomson)

Traffic camera

Gary said he’d had no significant work on his house, at the junction of Heath Park Road and Salisbury Road in Gidea Park, since buying it in 1999 – but now his roof needs urgent repairs.

“The tiles need to be replaced,” he said. “I’ve got a nest of sparrows in the loft. They obviously came in through a hole.”

His builders put suspended scaffolding on the side of the house, to avoid blocking the pavement.

But Gary claimed an enforcement officer visited on March 31 and ordered him to dismantle the scaffolding or face legal action.

He said they claimed his scaffolding could obstruct a traffic camera, installed to deter parents of children at the nearby Squirrels Heath Primary School from clogging local streets.

The council ordered Gary to take down his scaffolding, claiming it was obstructing a traffic camera attached to a Salisbury Road lamppost (Image: Charles Thomson)

He said he was initially given three days to dismantle the scaffolding, which would have significantly delayed his roof repairs and cost him thousands of pounds.

He emailed the council that weekend to complain about the legal threat.

The council responded by extending the deadline for the scaffolding removal to April 16. It did not deny that a threat of legal action had been made.

U-turn

Gary filed further complaints, pointing out that the council had erected a camera pole opposite his house but then put its camera on a lamppost beside his house instead, without consulting him.

He also denied that his scaffolding was blocking the camera.

On April 14, a more senior council officer visited the property.

“He came around and said, ‘This is ridiculous, no laws have been broken, they had no authority to threaten you’,” Gary claimed.

“He said he was going to instruct them to move the camera to the post where it should be.”

At the junction of Heath Park Road and Salisbury Road stands a camera pole with no camera attached to it (Image: Charles Thomson)

The Recorder has seen an email sent by that officer shortly after his visit, apologising for the delay and stress and confirming Gary did not need to take his scaffolding down after all.

The officer had “advised the camera attached to the street lamp on Salisbury Road is moved to the pole on Heath Park Road.”

Denial

A Havering Council spokesperson said: “At no time was there any threat of legal action against this resident, nor were there concerns that the actions of our officers were incorrect or unlawful.

“Our officers visited the resident and it was agreed to keep the scaffolding up but to remove anything that was obstructing the on-street camera or that posed a risk to public safety.

“We agreed that our engineers could use the scaffolding to reach the camera, which is used as part of the School Streets scheme and for community safety.

“Our parking team will now consider whether the camera can be safely moved to a pole on the opposite side of the street.

“The resident has since thanked the council for our assistance in resolving this issue.”

The camera was put up to deter parents of children at Squirrels Heath primary school from clogging up residential streets (Image: Charles Thomson)

‘Disgraceful’

“The response you have received is gaslighting,” said Gary, who insists a legal threat was made.

“The statement is disingenuous at best and misleading at worst.

“[The officer] caused me two weeks of stress. She overstepped the mark. It took about 30 or 40 phone calls and 10 emails to get it sorted.

“It was disgraceful, the amount of stress that they put me through, my partner through, my builder through, my scaffolding company through. My scaffolder works all over London and he’s never come across this issue in 20 years.

“[The officer] had a tunnel view and she tried to bully me into doing something I didn’t need to do.”