The petition, calling for a review of the operation of CCTV Vehicles, was presented by Thorpe Independent Party councillor Mike Stafford. Some residents may not be aware that Cllr Stafford recently had a cameo appearance in a BBC programme Parking Mad, aired in January, as part of a campaign group to force the council to abolish the CCTV Vehicle. The campaign group from the programme (pictured above) were the authors of the petition.
In his speech, Cllr Stafford proclaimed that the vehicles are a waste of money and should be abolished following a review. This was seeming odd, considering that I brought forward a review of the CCTV Vehicle after its first year of operation. The review was supported by all 51 councillors and nobody proposed to abolish the vehicles. Interestingly, Cllr Stafford did not utter one single word during the review but certainly had quite a lot to say for himself on Thursday evening.
I can only assume that Cllr Stafford 'forgot' that there was review of the Vehicles being undertaken as avid followers of this blog may remember that Cllr Stafford famously 'forgot' which ward he represented. It was even more peculiar that considering we were setting the budget that night, if Cllr Stafford thought the CCTV Vehicles are a waste of money then why on earth did he not propose to put this up as a budget saving proposal.
The problem is of course he couldn't, as part of the memorandum of understanding with us that he signed along with his Thorpe colleagues was that he agreed to the continued responsible use of the CCTV Vehicles.
Next up in the debate for the Independent Party was Cllr Anne Chalk. We had the usual from Anne as she once again protested about the use of the vehicles in Shoeburyness High Street. It is somewhat strange that Cllr Chalk only moans about the CCTV Vehicle in Shoeburyness High Street in her ward but I somewhat suspect that this may be because she actually lives in the road.
Anne also commented that she had not seen the car patrolling as much in Shoeburyness High Strret recently. Doh, this was due to the fact that as part of the review it was recommended that there would be a relaxation of enforcement in local shopping areas. Lets also remember that my proposal to publish the routes of the Vehicles was also agreed in the review which will enable residents and councillors to make representations as to areas or roads that they wish to see or not see the CCTV Vehicle patrol.
It would appear that the message is loud and clear from Anne in that she will only speak up for the road that she lives in but could not give a toss about any other road that she represents, especially as she was happy for the vehicles to be deployed on East Beach to monitor noise nuisance as ruthlessly exposed by the Echo.
The final Independent Party speaker was their leader Cllr Terry. Again, Cllr Terry did not cover himself in glory as he said that he had 'concerns' regarding the legality of the Vehicles. The legality issue was dealt with as part of the review but Cllr Terry obviously did not have concern especially as he actually proposed to increase the hours of operation of the CCTV Vehicle.
During last years election campaign, the Independent Party run the following poster ad campaign all over the town where their candidates were standing:
Yet some Independent Party councillors and candidates were actually me for the CCTV car to be deployed in their wards! What the Independent Party need to remember is that being the official opposition also comes with responsibility.
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