7 March (Part 1) - Loitering with intent
A
new weapon has been unlashed on the roads of Bexley,
they are equipped with number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras and the local Notomob coordinator and Martin
Peaple have offered the following observations.
Who is Martin Peaple new readers may ask.
Martin achieved fame while working in
a Sidcup shop by deciding to warn customers tempted to park directly outside because
it was a bus stop. He considered they might prefer to obey the law.
Bexley council, dismayed at the probable loss of income, had a quiet word with the police
who were not at all fazed by the fact that Martin had broken no laws and happily did Bexley
council’s bidding and paid Martin a home visit to warn him that his totally legal
acts were unwelcome in a borough led by a dishonest politician. It was in many
ways a repeat of my own threat of arrest if I continued to “criticise
councillors”. And the police wonder why I firmly believe they are - or at least
were in Borough Commander Dave Stringer’s day - in Bexley council’s pocket.
According to Martin and the Notomob the new spy cars were redundant from their
previous Olympic duties and the ANPR has not yet been brought into use.
ANPR cars can check residents’ parking permits against the council's data base
but there are problems. They need to go very slowly, around 5 m.p.h.,
creating a hazard or congestion. Cars may be parked too closely
and visitors’ permits won’t be on the data base. And what about blue badges?
They cannot patrol car parks while there is any non-phone
option for payment so stand by for that becoming the only permissible method.
Bexley’s new cars have a camera on a telescopic mast which mean they can
hide even more successfully than before and raise the camera from behind parked vans etc.
It looks like they have already started.
Note: As far as I could tell the van in these photographs
was parked entirely legally. Martin Peaple’s story is still featured on
Big Brother Watch.