Council Defends Turnham Green Camera

Stating that it is a road safety and community safety measure

Hounslow Council has defended the decision to introduce a new camera on the railway bridge over Turnham Green Terrace stating that it is a "road safety and community safety measure."

A spokesperson for the council told ChiswickW4.com "People are not being penalised for picking up or dropping off. Drivers are allowed to use the bay outside the tube station for picking up and dropping off, for example.

"People are being ticketed for stopping on zig-zag lines, stopping at the bus stop, or parking on the footway. We have only issued fixed penalty charges for these contraventions of the Highway Code.

"This camera is also a community safety measure and its location was deliberately chosen with this in mind.

"It's position allows filming of two paths through Chiswick Common and a path at the back of the rail track. This location gives a vast range of coverage, including the bicycle rack and tube station entrance, in addition to an important traffic thoroughfare and junction. The Police will have access to this footage allowing them good quality evidence should criminal incidents take place."

The CCTV camera has riled residents and traders and has been branded "oppressive" and "unacceptable".

The camera which covers the area around the tube station and the Terrace has caught motorists and traders unawares.

Wheelers, the garden centre adjacent to the tube reportedly received £700 worth of tickets before they realised where the camera was positioned. They claim that business as been hit by the new more draconian restrictions on loading and unloading and by customers not being able to pick up goods from the garden centre or the flower stall.

The stated aim is to try and improve the flow of traffic outside the tube station which sometimes can be impeded by cars dropping off or picking up at the station. However, because of the lack of publicity surrounding the camera's installation, suspicions were aroused that its primary purpose is revenue raising rather than traffic management.

Hounslow Council is believed to have set a target to repeat the zero percent rise in income tax of this year and they have budgeted for a £3 million surplus on the parking account for the current financial year. This requires a substantial increase in the number of tickets being issued and this is being partly met by new CCTV cameras in Chiswick and Brentford.

A few months previously residents started to receive fines in the post for parking in the loading bays outside the Old Cinema not aware that the area was now monitored by a CCTV camera at the junction with Turnham Green. In Brentford, locals are up in arms about a camera which is covering a set of parking bays which appear to be misleadingly signed causing people to describe it as a trap set by the Council. Click here to read related article.

November 2, 2007