4 March (Part 1) - Ghost of Craske
One
of Peter Craske’s schemes to screw the Bexley motorist more than ever before was
to redeploy the fixed CCTV cameras installed for reasons of public safety to instead raise money
by surveying the roads for anyone who might commit a minor misdemeanour. He,
using the weasel words so closely associated with a man who had developed
lying to an art form, said it was getting
“value for money” from the system.
For reasons which were never made clear officially this plan was halted more than a year ago and before
implementation. It was felt at the time it might conflict with Bexley’s plan to
take over the CCTV surveillance duties from other boroughs; something else that never came to fruition.
Now the old scheme may be about to creep in by stealth. New gestapo wagons have
been seen on the streets of Bexley and they are equipped with Automatic Number
Plate Recognition cameras. The one shown was spotted last week by a B-i-B
reader lurking in Blackfen, one of Bexley council’s
favourite revenue raising honeypots. (See that reader’s photograph.)
I imagine the Notomob people will know what dirty deeds a malevolent council can
do with ANPR technology and I will endeavour to pick their brains.
There has been no mention of these new spy cars at any relevant council meeting.