Havering Council’s dreaded CCTV “spy” fleet is destined for the scrapheap with the government set to announce a ban.
The council’s income from penalty charge notices (PCNs) has amounted to nearly £2million in the past financial year – the third lowest of all the London boroughs - of which more than £670,000 was generated via mobile cameras.
Communities secretary Eric Pickles said last year he wanted to rein in “over-zealous and unfair rules on parking enforcement” in a bid to jump-start the country’s struggling high streets, a point reiterated by the department’s minister Brandon Lewis last week.
But cabinet member for environment, Cllr Barry Tebbutt, said: “For those who try to abuse the system, we need tools like the CCTV cars. The fact that we issued the third lowest PCN rates in London, despite being one of the largest boroughs, shows we take a common sense approach to parking enforcement. We await the results of the DCLG consultation with interest.”
Should “spy” cars be scrapped? Complete our poll or send your comments to robin.cottle@archant.co.uk.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here