Council CCTV cars raise £8m in fines

21st July 2010

‘Drive-by spies’ are coining it in for local councils all over Britain. In 12 months, the UK’s fleet of 54 mobile CCTV-equipped Smarts brought in an amazing £8million in fines from 188,000 motorists.

In Essex, the closed-circuit ForTwo targets parents who stop to drop off their children outside schools, while another in Greater Manchester films drivers talking on mobile phones.

The amount of cash raised has sparked fury that catching drivers on camera has little to do with road safety. Dylan Sharpe, from Big Brother Watch – the website that used Freedom of Information laws to get the figures – said: “The cars go out to make money; safety is an afterthought.”

Twenty-three of the councils running the £40,000 Smarts lease their vehicles from parking contractors. “These firms make no secret of how profitable CCTV cars are,” added Sharpe.