Do we need to put up cameras on every street?
LEADING COUNCILLOR ASKS IF IT’S NECESSARY AND SAYS DRIVERS NEED TO BE COURTEOUS AS COUNCIL VOTES FOR MORE SURVEILLANCE
A LEADING Derby councillor has questioned the need to put up cameras on every street to catch motorists committing traffic offences.
Councillor Alan Graves, leader of the Reform Derby group, spoke out as the city council’s cabinet voted to apply to for extra powers to police Derby’s motorists.
A LEADING Derby councillor has questioned the need to put up cameras “on every b **** y street” to catch motorists committing traffic offences.
Councillor Alan Graves, leader of the Reform Derby group, spoke out as the city council’s cabinet voted to apply to the Government for additional powers to police some moving motoring offences in Derby.
This includes making banned turns, driving the wrong way on oneway streets, ignoring access restrictions and entering yellow box marking at junctions - currently under the jurisdiction of the police but rarely enforced by officers.
It would be done using civil enforcement cameras and the issue of penalty notices after the Department of Transport confirmed in June that local authorities could apply for powers to enforce moving traffic offences.
Mr Graves said he felt there were issues about how the public would see the council enforcing motoring offences and not the police.
He said: “My feeling is that police are not around very much as they go to the more serious crimes and the lesser crimes are overlooked. As a local authority is it something we want to take on? We now become the custodians of making sure traffic violations are our responsibility and not the police responsibility.
“We need to get people to be more polite and courteous when driving and rather than trying to camera-police them. We need to think carefully because we will need to put cameras up on every b **** y street. I think we need to be very careful whether we take this on or not.” Mr Graves apologised for swearing.
Handing some motoring offences over to the local councils has already taken place in London and mayoral combined authorities across the country.
It is being proposed that once given the powers, the following sites are part of an initial first month trial:
■ Friar Gate, Ford Street, Stafford Street (signalled junction): where contravention of the turning restrictions leads to conflict with pedestrians.
■ Darley Park Drive: this is a long-standing issue and has been the site of minor accidents and complaints about the risk to children at school times.
■ South Avenue, Junction of Valley Road in Littleover – there is evidence that vehicles exit the ring road and contravene the no-entry restriction with the associated risk to road users.
■ Sitwell Street/ Chapel Street, Spondon – contravention of the noentry restriction is a persistent issue with the risk of vehicles meeting head on with limited forward visibility.
The initial proposal is to relocate existing camera apparatus to monitor the sites for a month and make further assessments of the scale of actual contravention.
Based on this, an operational decision will be made on whether to implement enforcement.
If the decision is made to go ahead, then publicity, and increased on-street signing will be put in place, and further monitoring will be carried out to see if the enforcement is effective.
Warning notices, with no penalty charge, will operate initially before actual charges are issued.
Money raised from penalty charges “should be used to cover costs and any surplus is utilised for the improvement of highways and for the future benefit of road users”.