Durham using Speed Cameras to catch Smokers Saw this on the news yesterday - Durham City Council are using SPEED CAMERAS to catch people who throw cigarette ends from their car windows to prosecute them! People caught on camera chucking tab ends from moving cars with get a £60 fine using evidence from speed cameras to collect the cash..erm... i mean stop this awful crime. Once again, drivers get fucked up the arse - for years, the councils and goverment have been trying to argue that speed cameras are a necessary evil to STOP ROAD DEATHS - not collect revenue - and here we are - they're being put to use to collect fines! why not use CCTV footage to stop people smoking in the street and chucking it on the floor? NO NO a nice EASY target, get someone's registration plate and fire off a letter - no police work, less hassle as most people will just pay it - easy money in the bank. NOT TO MENTION - on BBC News there's an article on Durhams roads saying deaths have increased since the rise in static and mobile cameras. Whats everyones thoughts on this?
These measures we have these days are more about 'revenue generation' for councils than the actual punishment of crimes. As much as theres the usual 'well if you dont do anything wrong you have nothing to be afraid of' arguments for most of these things ... the money they generate from nicking people for these offenses doesnt go towards a related cause - it probably goes to fund state pensions somewhere, or to subsidise some bint on a council estate with her 12 kids. Doesnt half the money for car tax get used elsewhere these days? Nothing like taxation that bears nothing in relation to its supposed reason for being eh
£170 i pay in road tax a year.... nevermind 90p a litre in petrol... Labour seems to love legislation - but does it do any good? ID cards - phah. 1) they'll make no difference 2) they'll be copied, busted and faked within 10 minutes...
This does sound pathetic and an easy way to collect money and makes me glad Im not a driver. Maybe this is another one of those ways the government wants to reduce smoking? Like banning it from shopping centres and Im sure I heard they are going to ban it from bus shelters as well? I can kind of see a point in it but at the end of the day there is a lot more bigger problems on roads that someone smoking. Why not put the effort into catching people on their phone?
If this government really cared, it would have banned smoking by now - instead of adding yet another layer of stealth taxes and ways of collecting money from us, and wrapping them up in a 'this is to protect hard working, law abiding people like you' packages. ..... more rubbish from Blair and co.
[government really cared] Governments don't care ... it's a pre-requisit !!! Aren't they voting today on a ban ???? Or is it already obvious that they have too much money to lose ????
again, if they were THAT bothered about litter, use CCTV - they'd catch many more litter-louts than the occasional tab end out of a car window... police sitting in cop cars, using mobile speed cameras to take photos of people chucking a tab end out of the window - it's perposterous! (sp) what a waste! no, to catch litter louts, they might have to do some real work, like patrol the streets... much easier just to send someone a letter in the post - it's like direct debit - they know most people will just put up, shut up and pay. nice little earner.
its a great idea shouldnt be throwing lit tabs out of cars anyway it could be dangerous. i say stop screwing motorists and start really screwing smokers.
it's the age old arguement - IF they were serious about a tabacco ban for 'peoples health' - they'd make it totally illegal - but they can't - they'd lose too much in tax revenue, which indirectly funds the NHS and the so called 'smoking related' costs to it but, yeah, you wanna screw the smoker - why not use cctv (apparently, if u work in london, you'll get photo'd 300 times a day at the moment) to prosecute pedestrians? you'll spot far more of these smokers AND they make much more of a mess
Re: Durham using Speed Cameras to catch Smokers Fuck! Whereabouts are speed cameras in Durham? I didnt think there were any!
Re: Re: Durham using Speed Cameras to catch Smokers Durham has no fixed speed cameras, it the only force in England not to have them.
Re: Re: Re: Durham using Speed Cameras to catch Smokers You'd think they would have some in Durham City mind.
