How Smart is this car in Market Road?

Published: 27th May, 2011

• ON the face of it, Councillor Paul Convery’s response to my suggestion that it is extremely wasteful to have two council employees sitting almost daily in a Smart camera car in Market Road would make some sense (Letters, May 20).

He argues that it punishes drivers turning from Caledonian Road into Mackenzie Road on which, in their wisdom, the council has made a no-right-turn order.

That is a lot of money to pay to photograph the few vehicles involved, plus the added cost of pursuing them for breaking this no-turn edict.  

I first wrote to the Tribune in September 2007 asking if this Smart camera car was the best use of residents’ money. So please tell us now, Cllr Convery, how much have you raised  from this practice at Market Road over four years?    

And please set that against the cost of the wages, vehicle purchase and upkeep, issuing fines and following up non-payment. In other words, has the spy camera car ever paid for itself?

I suggested in my earlier letter a fixed camera could do it all at a fraction of the cost. Cllr Convery said that would be “expensive”.  But when I went on Monday to look again at the junction I found there is already a camera in place. So what does that cost? And what is it for?

Incidentally, I waited an hour by the no-entry sign during which not one vehicle broke that law. 

The Smart spy car was there, parked as usual on double-yellow lines, but when I photographed it the crew quickly decided it was time for lunch. 

I wondered why, if council staff could spend all that time sitting in their spy car, one of them could not get out and use a cleaning cloth on the very dirty no-entry signs. These would then be more visible to drivers trying to navigate the chaos and sign-clutter confusion of Islington’s potholed streets.

But then, of course, if drivers can see the signs better, that means less income from fines...
Keith McDowall
Malvern Terrace, N1