Spy car plan halted following legal hitch

Plans for a camera car to spy on parents parking illegally in the Black Country have been put on ice. Sandwell Council had drawn up plans to buy or lease a £15,000 vehicle.

The car would have been loaded with video cameras and automatic number plate technology. It would have been used to snare motorists mounting pavements or stopping on zig zags and yellow lines on hotspots outside borough schools. It had been hoped that the scheme would come into force some time this month.

But concerns over the operation of a similar system elsewhere in the country have forced officers to postpone rolling it out while they re-think the legal details.

Neighbourhoods chief Councillor Mahboob Hussain said there had been a court case involving another local authority which had not put up the appropriate signs and had been involved in legal action.

"This court case has said that local authorities cannot do this unless they warn people at the side of the road, so we are clearing that up at this present time," he said.

"The local authority cannot just park a vehicle down there and start taking down people's numbers.

"This technical court hearing has given us second thoughts.

"We would have to go through putting a notice on the road about cameras operating and there is a process which we need to follow before we can use this vehicle.

"As long as we follow that process I think we should be okay."

Across Sandwell, council and residents groups have also been funding moveable CCTV cameras.

The £800 surveillance equipment, called Domehawks, can be moved from site to site and are meant to stop anti-social behaviour.

Last month, one was put in Brunswick Park in Wednesbury which residents say is a meeting point for yobs and areas of land in Mafeking Road and Sydenham Road in Smethwick had cameras installed in 2007 following complaints of constant fly-tipping.