Spy-car rakes in a Beastly £48,000
8:00am Friday 9th July 2010
Basildon Council’s spy-car – dubbed “the Beast of Basildon” – has raked in £48,000 in parking fines in just seven months.
The CCTV-equipped Smart Car earned the sum in fixed penalty notice fines between its launch in September and the end of the financial year, in March.
The figure was unearthed by anti-CCTV campaign group, Big Brother Watch.
The car has cost the council about £49,000 to lease for five years, so has almost paid for itself within less than a year.
Earlier this year the Echo reported council staff were so impressed by the car’s performance, they were calling it “the Beast”.
Malcolm Buckley, councillor responsible for the environment, praised the car’s performance, but said the £49,000 lease figure did not including running costs.
He admitted: “It has done better than we anticipated in generating income, but a penalty notice can only be issued if somebody has committed an offence.
“The real reason we got the car was we were concerned about parking, particularly near schools.
“The congestion around the high streets has improved and it has made our streets safer, which is the whole point of it.
“I look forward to the day when it is not paying for itself, because it will mean fewer people are parking dangerously and putting others at risk.”
The car uses a camera, mounted on a telescopic mast on its roof to snap cars parked where they shouldn’t be.
Often the first drivers know of it is when they receive a £70 fixed penalty notice in the post, with a note explaining they need only pay £35 if they paid within 14 days.
Dave Blackwell, chairman of the Basildon Hackney Carriage Proprietors’ Association, agreed the car had put an end to problem parking near Basildon railway station.
He said: “In that sense, it has helped us a great deal.
“Our drivers used to have a lot of arguments with drivers before – and a lot of problems getting into the taxi rank at the station.
“But sometimes the council people do seem to be deliberately going out of their way to catch people at the station – even when someone is just trying to drop people off.
“It’s hard to drop people off there, especially if they are disabled. You always used to be allowed five minutes.
“Now, there’s zero tolerance.”
Source; http://www.basildonrecorder.co.uk/news/ ... ___48_000/
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