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Dear Sir/Madam,Yesterday May 4th, I came across, what I later discovered to be, a Hackney Mobile CCTV enforcement vehicle at the southern end of Boleyn Road N16. It was completely anonymous and unmarked bar a camera pictogram on the vehicle's bonnet. At first, I was curious to know for which borough it was enforcing as it was parked on the Islington side of the street. It was parked rather inconsiderately with the front overhang of the van overlapping into the adjacent disabled bay. On further closer inspection I noticed a piece of A4 paper blu-tacked to the windscreen which solely identified the vehicle as a Hackney one. Next to this paper was the expired Road Fund Licence disc. I enclose photographs below.As a matter of urgency, I would like to know the following:1) Is the vehicle road taxed or is it just failing to display a valid tax disc?2) Under what dispensation can a Hackney enforcement vehicle operate whilst ostensibly operating in Islington? There were plenty of unoccupied spaces on the Hackney side of Boleyn Road.3) What training do the drivers/operators of these vehicles receive? The operator I spoke to yesterday claimed that his English was "not very good" and he'd only "been in the country a few months". Does the operator hold a valid UK driving licence?4) In what way does the vehicle adhere to the Secretary for State's guidelines (February 2008) that states that CCTV vehicles should be a visible deterrent? It's virtually unmarked and completely innocuous.I hope you can agree with me that this really looks like "one rule for us and one rule for them" - something that surely Hackney Council will be keen to avoid. May I draw your attention to the following from page 24 of the below stated source: “Adjudicators have noticed that in some of the correspondence the council has claimed that the TMA provides an exemption from parking restrictions for a CCTV vehicle. This is not the case - there are no provisions in the TMA or any of its regulations that create exemptions to parking restrictions in TROs for vehicles engaged in camera enforcement.”Source: http://www.manchester.gov.uk/egov_downloads/200910_Parking_Report_to_the_Joint_Committee.pdf The fact that the vehicle should not be operating on the public highway without a valid tax disc only emphasises this "we can do what we like" premise and does nothing to allay the fears of tax paying residents that local authorities are putting profit before services. Indeed, the operator I spoke to yesterday seemed to be saying that he was allowed to park wherever, whenever he liked and I shouldn't really be bothered about such minor details as road tax - not that he knew what it was, I had to explain it to him. I hope you will give this matter the urgent attention it deserves and respond to my concerns forthwith. I await your reply with interest.Yours faithfully,S. Brown
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