IN THE dishonourable tradition of newspapers’ claiming victories for things that may have happened anyway, Loving Dalston can hail the replacement of spy-cars with fixed cameras.

Feryal Demirci, the Hackney councillor responsible for neighbourhoods, this week told Loving Dalston: “Fixed cameras are being installed to monitor some bus lanes, banned turns and yellow box junctions as a deterrent to potentially dangerous driving and to help traffic flow.

“This will reduce costs and allow the council to reduce the number of CCTV vehicles we use to two, which we’ll be able to use in hotspot areas and in response to residents’ concerns.”

The cameras would be installed by April 2014.

The spy-cars, one pictured above during a protest in June 2012, were criticised on this website by residents and local politicians, who described them as “cash cows” and “wasteful and bad for the environment”.

In Cecilia Road, Dalston, their deployment was questioned when the street’s intersection with Dalston Lane was altered to discourage banned right-turns. The view was that either the roadwork or the spy-cars were redundant, or ineffective.

In any case, motorists knew that when spy-cars were not in the street,  they could turn right at little risk of a fine. Fixed cameras are likely to solve that problem and be more cost-effective for Apcoa, the multinational subcontractor.

Hackney council at that time said the camera-cars created “very little pollution or noise pollution”.

Next campaign for Loving Dalston? Perhaps visual pollution caused by cameras and repetitious signs, see right.

David Altheer 260214 

* Since Loving Dalston was told that the  camera-cars would be replaced by fixed cameras, council staff have encountered problems with their installation, necessitating the  temporary retention of the spy-cars. 

* Backstory: Spy-cars, costly roadworks and  Sly eye on Hackney hotspots

* Emboldened underscored words in most cases indicate a hyperlink, a reader service rare among websites.