Spy camera cars caught breaking own parking rules

Spy cars: Caught out on Lexington street
12 April 2012

'Spy cars' that film motorists have been caught appearing to break the same rules for which they are punishing other drivers.

The Toyota IQs were working for Westminster council.

One was caught by a camera parking on a pavement in Lexington Street, with another in a gap immediately behind, above. Another was filmed in Park Crescent with its wheels on the pavement, top right, and a fourth blocked the entrance to a junction off Abbey Road, below.

Campaigner Paul Pearson, of penaltychargenotice.com, said the operators were getting away with "dangerous and obstructive" offences. "The car at Abbey Road was there for about an hour before I photographed it," he said.

"It forced a person with a pram to walk into the main road and into the path of other vehicles. It was right by a dropped kerb for wheelchair or pram users." The cars were operated for Westminster by contractor NSL.

The borough's enforcement operations manager, Bob Poston, said the law allowed them "to park on the carriageway and in certain parking places to undertake their duties. It does not permit them to park on the footway nor on lineage on red routes."

He said NSL had been asked to explain the cars seen in Lexington Street. The one on a red route stopped to reverse into a parking place, he added.

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