I ADMIT I am rarely satisfied by any decision taken in public life, mainly because the powers-that-be always go to opposite extremes when they determine policy.
Take speed cameras for instance – and I’m sure lots of you would want to take them and throw them in the bin.
I dislike these devices and despise the principle of the law-abiding motorist always being clobbered. Not only do they rack up a fine, but they also earn penalty points and can be banned from the road for simply mistaking a confusing limit. And then they find their insurance premiums shoot up as an extra penalty to the ones they have already suffered.
But having said all of that, I just can’t agree with the county council’s approach over cutting just ten cameras. What has particularly irked the Bucks Free Press, and quite rightly so, is the loss of the camera by The Rye. If ever there was to be justification for a speed camera, it would be there on a flat fast road, near to where children cross.
Any driver caught there only has themselves to blame because the camera is extremely apparent.
Another so-called victory for drivers this week was the Government’s proposal for an outright ban on clamping firms on private land. Many of us will cheer because clampers have disgracefully overcharged and persecuted drivers for years. But a total ban as opposed to strict regulation?
As one friend gasped this week: “So does this mean anyone can now park on my drive and I can’t stop them?”
Yes, the pendulum has swung back, but in my view it’s swung back too far.
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