Mr Mustard found out that since the new no right turn was implemented on this corner on 12 May 2014 the council have issued over 7,100 tickets at 130 quid a pop. If you average that out at payment of 75 quid for each ticket it means that in a little under 5 months they have extracted approximately £532k from motorists.
Obviously something was wrong here so me, Mr Mustard and Boyo did a spur of the moment $chunt yesterday (we only found out about it on Friday 5th September).
I got there at just before midday, just in time to watch a woman commit the offence. I watched in $chunting horror as the old style box camera situated opposite the junction panned round in order to catch the rear number plate of the car as it turned right out of Hewitt Road onto Green Lanes.
$chunter's instinct kicked in and I determined that no more drivers would receive penalties while I was there, and to my great satisfaction none did in the ensuing 3 and three quarter hours.
There was a steady stream of drivers coming to me telling me they had received PCNs for doing what they had done for years, with one guy saying that he had received eight in one week. Another had got six, another five, and one old boy who was a regular at a local cafe and who needed a walking frame to get there said he had got four before he realised what was going on, which was when the first one dropped on his doormat a week after he first committed the offence.
It then emerged that what the council did was even more despicable than first thought.
As you can see from the photos, there are currently two nice big no right turn signs at the junction, both of which are clearly visible as you approach along a long, straight, road. However, having spoken to several aggrieved motorists and some local shopowners it transpires that when the junction first went into "production" there were only road markings present.
Then at some point the no right turn sign on the right was introduced, but there were complaints that this was frequently blocked from sight by foliage and vans parked in the bays before the junction. Then, one day only last week the no right turn sign on the left appeared. A cynical person might suggest that this was done deliberately so as to maximise income before protesters like us became involved and brought it to the attention of the general public.
Anyway, back to the $chunting. As I said previously, when I first arrived the box camera was pointed directly at the junction. I had a word with the guy who I think was the manager of the estate agents on the corner, and he said that he had been watching what went on and that the box camera was permanently trained on the junction. He also pointed out that there was another camera that had been recently installed and was pointing at the junction. It turns out that this is one of the unmanned, automatic Zenco Zengrab cameras that we suspect will be employed more and more by councils once they are banned from using cameras for parking enforcement.
While I was talking to the estate agent man in the doorway of his shop he said “Hold up! They've turned the camera to look at us!”, at which point I said “Oh well, we might as well give 'em a wave.” While we waved, I couldn't help laughing when I saw the camera jiggle from side to side which I took as the operator's way of waving back.
Shortly after that, and to the astonishment of Mr estate agent, the camera swung round to point straight up Green Lanes where it remained for the rest of the time we were $chunting.
About an hour after I arrived I was joined by Mr Mustard, and shortly after that by Boyo and I will let them recount their own stories.
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