Parking spy car plan targets parents

A spy car designed to catch out parents parking illegally on the school run could be deployed throughout the Black Country.

The vehicle, loaded with hi-tech digital video cameras, records motorists stopping on zig-zags or no-parking zones outside the region's schools.

Sandwell Council has already stated it plans to have the Big Brother-style technology in place by September but chiefs today revealed that negotiations are taking place with the other three Black Country authorities with a view to rolling out the scheme elsewhere.

Sandwell wants to spread the cost of the £30,000 scheme by leasing the vehicle to other boroughs, or inviting them to share the expense of purchasing it. Neighbourhoods chief Councillor Mahboob Hussain said that it would be a better use of resources to have the vehicle well used, which was why they wanted to involve the other boroughs.

"I've asked the officers to talk to the other Black Country authorities about purchasing it with us or leasing the vehicle on a regular basis," he said.

"It is something that does interest the local authority, and it is something that we will be doing, hopefully from the new school term in September.

"In the meantime, I think it is only right that we talk to other Black Country authorities because of the sheer cost.

"So, wherever there is a need, we can share the vehicle and share the cost," Councillor Hussain added.

Footage recorded on the cameras could be used to prosecute nuisance parkers.

Councillor Hussain has said the scheme is not aimed at catching parents out and issuing fines but is about sending a message to parents that problem parking would be taken seriously.

The council is also planning to purchase two £15,000 speed guns which will be handed out to residents to patrol the streets themselves in speeding hotspots.

Councillor Hussain said the authority had already done as much as it could to ease the problems of nuisance parking outside schools, including road improvements, warning letters, sending wardens round, and putting in road markings.

In Dudley, motorists who speed past school crossing patrols are already being snapped by hi-tech camera poles.

The authority was the first in the West Midlands to fit signs with hidden cameras so drivers who put lollipop ladies and children in danger could be punished.

Two signs have been in use at various mystery sites since the start of the school year in September 2008.

When the idea was first proposed, Richard Kentish, head of The Cape Primary School, Smethwick, said: "In the morning, and at the end of the school day, it can be dangerous. Roads have become busier and more hazardous."