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Can I possibly be the only one who saw this coming?
With the money grabbing attitude that is so prevalent in Whitehall I thought it obvious that with a network of cash generating speed cameras already in place, no matter how unpopular or for what reason, they would seek to sell them off to raise cash rather than spend money decommissioning the network.
The interesting point for me is that the suggestion to sell off the ‘assets’ has come from the head of roads policing at the Association of Chief Police Officers. Selling off the enforcement of speeding fines would save resources for the public purse within councils and the police service of course and every penny counts at the moment.
Can you imagine the furore that will ensue when the private clamping firms, who have been promised hard times by regulators because of their charlatan practices, win the bid to operate the system in possibly your area? I can!
The area of individual privacy will I believe be a major concern for years to come and this decision would certainly impinge upon this area. A large government database of personal details and certainly information that would be invaluable to identity theft fraudsters would have to be shared with many contractors who in turn would have many employees trusted with your information.
My instinct is that the government should run a country mile from this ‘suggestion’ but I doubt that they will. This is one for the future. In the short term councils across the country will find themselves ‘encouraged’ to maintain the system in the public interest of course.
