Vince Cable

Richmond Council has agreed to take a fresh look at the use of CCTV vehicle enforcement for parking fines after it emerged that the cameras cannot detect disabled blue badges.

Vincent Cable, MP, had taken up the case of David Beauchamp a Whitton resident who was fined after being detected by the new mobile cameras parking on Whitton High Street. Mr Beauchamp had displayed his blue badge correctly but the mobile CCTV cameras would not identify it. The council has waived the fine and agreed to review the system and to consult other local authorities.

Vincent Cable said that he was "pleased that the council had dealt with the case sympathetically and is looking at the whole system afresh. The use of CCTV carrying vehicles, rather than parking wardens, was recently authorised by the government but this is clearly an area where technological innovation has not been thought through".