Voluntary taxation anyway.

They make them obvious, they put road markings on the road, they are in a fixed position.
How much more voluntary can the taxation be?

Still, councils getting rid or not having new ones just means the police can get on with the job of stealthily clocking vehicles, without road signs or making it obvious, and in variable places, but makes everyone happy as no big cameras around.

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Re the furore on Speed cameras

Lets go back to the beginning of time !

In 1930 the Road Traffic Act of the day introduced Speed Limits throughout the country and who was responsible for seeing those limits were obeyed – the then Police Forces .

Now in my time as Met Police traffic cop for best part of 22 years, I served at Hendon and Wembley Police garages (we did not operate out of police stations) where we had total strengths of personnel of about 106 officers at each unit..

These men were split into the main two shifts and then from these shifts there were Road Safety teams (going round to schools teaching children the rules of the road), men on courses and weekly leaves and holidays to all come out of this strength .

There were 8 garages around the MPD in those days each having approx those numbers of men to Police the trafffic scene.

On our daily patrols I suppose about 6 cars (double crewed) and half a dozen police bikes at most were on the streets each day, and at times, very much less especailly in the evenings, because we also had the commitment of escorting wide heavy loads all over London. Tthat required at least two men on motor cycles which were drawn from the availbale crews working late turn, so now we are down to just a handful to hound the motorists – this went on day in day out – week in week out no more no less .

Now some of us used to do some process, which is another word for reporting offences and I probable would get upwards of a 1000 over the course of the year . they were not all for Speed – there were all sorts of offences including dangerous driving, defective vehicles and of course accidents to deal with .

But a large number of officers just did one or two speeds each day and sometimes none at all.

So those who did a few process were the ‘cash cows’ of our time because ‘the nature of the beast’ is that there would be a monetary return (rather like camers, but in a very much lesser capacity) nevertheless we earned the treasury money!!!

So we were the only method of speed control and you can see that out of the millions of circulating and offending drivers, we hardly scraped the surface, but the men who did some process brought a pittance into the treasury coffers .
But this was not noticed by the majority of the populace, because in was so infitisimal.

The motoring public as a whole, like today’s millions exceeded the speed limits daily, but for their deeds, they were never caught, so no money was earned for the Treasury by us ‘Cash Cows’ and this went on for the whole of my service .

Now modern police Chief Constables ( a totally different breed of coppers came on the scene with new ideas ), got their heads together and agreed that traffic patrols were rather a wasted resource, just floating about the precinct in big cars full of petrol nicking one or two motorists and not really getting involved in too much with crime so they said Ah! we will change their roll of the traffic patrol to backing up the foot police in their fight against Crime.

So now you see there was/is a reducing number of traffic patrols on the roads these days BUT THE SPEED LIMITS WERE STILL IN PLACE; so who is going to enforce these limits – Nobody ( bearing in mind that the motoring public swelled in numbers and most were flying about the roads unchecked . They loved this didnt they No cat keeping an eye on them they had ‘carte blanche’ to drive just as they liked and in fact do every day – Utopia !

So into the picture comes new technoclogy in the form of ‘Cameras’ Wow ! these were something that will replace Police and take over speed enforcement .

Now we have weapon that is is not prevented from working like the human officer who has courts etc and to attend to all sorts of red tape to keep him off the roads. BUT the camera can sit there night and day and its sole purpose is to check the speed of all THESE ERRANT HARD DONE BY MOTOIRSTS, WHO HAVE BEEN BREAKING THE SPEED LIMITS FOR DECADES .

But now it starts to show up and they find that the treasury is earning huge amounts of money from these persecuted drivers time and again
Motorists who have had the time of their lives for years are being caught and prosecuted for their deeds, so it hits the public right between the eyes .

Having their freedom curtailed they start screaming ‘CASH COWS’ and stop persecuting the motorisist with all these fines. They dont see it that if they didnt break the law then they would retain their hard earned cash.

If as you state £100 million in fixed penalties is collected, do you not ask ‘Heck there are millions disobeying the rules of road – they are not so innocent as I first thought! and they are not the respected citizens of this country that I live among !!!!!

In fact it is now becoming fully visible just how many motorists are not conforming to speed limits and they dont like the way the poor souls are being treated, so we must do away with cameras .

Hooray! say the motorists we have cracked it and the authorities have capitulated from the pressure and at last we can drive as we like, whenever we like without fear of sanction or having to fork out our hard earned cash.

So what is the answer now with No Speed Cameras – well back to basics GET RID OF SPEED LIMITS as there are no longer any agencies to enforce the limits, so now we can save money in not having to put up inanimate signs informing of the limit – there is no other answer. It a certainty the motorist won’t voluntarily obey the law

It was talked about this morning on Neil Pringle Radio Sussex program that an outside reporter was watching the traffic flowing along Brighton seafront between the Pier and Kemp Town Marina & that they were all going along this very wide road very slowly because there is a 30 limit and are cameras at intervals – what will happen when they take them away . it will be like the Brighton Speed trials run annually on the lower road.

I rest my case.

YOU HAVE TO CANE THEM TO TRAIN THEM Not a bit of good coppers stopping them in fancy dress and telling them not to be be naugfhty persons they have all taken a test these days and sworn that they have read the Highway Code . the only sanction they know is points on their licences — I know it works I proved it over 22 years

regards

Don Williams

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