West End Letters: Economics | Martin Kennedy | CCTV crime areas | Department of Transport | criminal gangs | scrapping vans

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West End Extra - LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published: 22 May 2009

Economics of cameras

IT would be amusing were it not so misguided that Westminster Council have decided to save a paltry £120,000 by scrapping their only CCTV crime vans.
Why not scrap those sinister little Smart cars with their cameras on stalks prowling about creaming money from occasionally careless but otherwise law-abiding motorists?
It is obvious that Westminster regard it as far more worthwhile to hammer people they can guarantee getting money out of than actually trying to do something useful but unprofitable like monitoring criminal gangs. With this level of support from Westminster it is no wonder that the local police are so demoralised.
Councillors had hysterics the other week when the Department for Transport declared that all their CCTV cameras were incorrectly set, rendering parking tickets issued by them invalid.
They boo-hooed about how much it would cost to reconfigure them (twice what they are saving scrapping the crime vans).
It did not occur to them not to bother and save this money.
The cameras are still good for identifying criminals just not for reading car number plates.
The only conclusion to draw from all this is that Westminster councillors do not see the point of CCTV cameras unless they can raise revenue from them.
Martin Kennedy
Brewer Street, W1

Send your letters to: The Letters Editor, West End Extra, 40 Camden Road, London, NW1 9DR or email to letters@westendextra.co.uk. The deadline for letters is midday Wednesday. The editor regrets that anonymous letters cannot be published, although names and addresses can be withheld.
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