Caught on Camera - Revenue Raising in Warwickshire

Photographs and comments from Keith:

The white 08 registered Vauxhall Movano has no visible markings on the front to indicate that it is a police vehicle, the sides have some silver reflective stripes and the rear doors have yellow and red markings around the heavily tinted rear windows.

No where on the vehicle are the camera warning signs that have been a feature of the Ford Transit talivans used by Warwickshire previously and which feature on virtually every other area's talivans.

To the majority of motorists this new van could pass for a road contractor's vehicle. The new van has been seen lurking in Merevale Lane Grendon near Atherstone, the B4116, in a little used farm gateway just downhill from Merevale Church. The road is very rural and has a 50 mph speed limit for 75% of its length. The tally van has been positioned right at the end of the 50 mph limit to trap motorists who speed up early to the current 60 mph limits where their speed increase is assisted by the downhill nature of this section of road.

The talivan has been spotted here around 4.30 pm on Thursday October 16th 2008 ready to trap people returning from work.

With hardly any residents, excellent visibility and pedestrians a rarity on this section it is difficult to see how placing this speed trap here can be described as a safety measure.

The cynical omission off the usual talivan markings, the cessation of Warwickshire County Council publishing the daily movements of its talivans on its website combined with the imminent imposition of a 50 mph speed limit on virtually every rural road in Warwickshire says all we need to know about the true purpose of the safety camera partnership which is to raise as much revenue as possible whilst depriving otherwise law abiding hard working citizens.

Another comment from an ABD member:

I saw that there a week or so ago, it is one of my alternative routes to work, I wasn't even sure it was a Talivan, it looked as though it could just as easily have been a maintenance van working at the church.

Stupid limit anyway. The only hazard is the hill crest and then only if you are travelling towards the A5, yet 3/4 of the whole road has a 50 limit.

And don't get me started on the idiotic pheasant warning signs!