Safe Speed Forums

This weeks Westmorland Gazette bore a letter from a councillor in Keighley, Yorkshire, heavily critical of the Court system, and it's involvement in the Cumbria Safety Camera Partnership.

It appears that he received a FPN, and challenged it in court. However he said the Clerk of the Court was openly hostile, and dismissive of evidencce that the camera had flashed when the driver was below the limit.

The upshot was that the case was finally heard this month (the alleged offence was in October 2006) and he has been found NOT GUILTY.

As usual, the CSCP denied access to photographs upon request, and when they were finally disclosed, refused to disclose the time interval between the two photographs.

I shall be asking the Gazette to look into the claims, as clearly the court in Kendal is lending undue favour to testimoney by CSCP witnesses - who after all swear on the bible for a living.
Those that know me know I would never undertake such an action lightly, and in the light of an FoI request to the Home Office, it is my belief that the CSCP might be facing more contested cases in the furture.

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

Looks like others are finally coming to the realisation we've had for a long time....

Vested interests + a lack of morals + a tendency to lie + charlatanry = a high chance of corruption, no? Time for some countersurveillance to uncover it, perhaps? We could call the operation CSCPPSCCCSC: Cumbria "Safety" Camera Partnership (Particularly SC & Court Clerks) Surveillance Cameras.

Cumbria's such a nice place. If I lived there, I'd be absolutely furious that the area (for locals, tourists and those passing through) was being continually spoiled by such parasites. People must hesitate to invite their friends to stay for fear that they get an unpleasant surprise on their return. It must be hard to have much pride in the county at the moment. And all so that a bunch of self-righteous, hypocritical idiots can earn far more money then they're worth. It's incredible that so few people can in a few years ruin somewhere that's been so pleasant through centuries of national turmoil and upheaval. The only consolation is that once they're gone, they're gone (albeit without returning people's hard-earned).

There are only two possible ways that Callaghan can sleep at night: either he uses heavy sedatives, or he has no shame. I suppose it's pretty obvious which.

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Paul Smith: a legend.

"The freedom provided by the motor vehicle is not universally applauded, however: there are those who resent the loss of state control over individual choice that the car represents. Such people rarely admit their prejudices openly; instead, they make false or exaggerated claims about the adverse effects of road transport in order to justify calls for higher taxation or restrictions on mobility." (Conservative Way Forward: Stop The War Against Drivers)

OK, so we are always to be wary of 'baiting' the usual protagonists, but something tells me that this would not be a good time for you-know-who to be chucking his toys out the pram and sending out letterheads again without proper authority.

My guess is that he-who-must-not-be-named will be a bit more circumspect from now on, considering that his organisation is in the bad books with one councillor at least.

Maybe someone should alert this councillor to our prior 'engagement' with CSCP and a certain person's potential breaches of jurisdiction...?!

The 'Magistrates Court Service' is a 'Partner' within the CSCP. My Dictionary defines Partnership as 'Joint Business Venture Between Two or More People'. Thus the Court Service is part of a 'business venture'. If a 'Partner' acts against the profitably of the Partnership, they would be failing in their duty as a 'Partner'. With this in mind, how can one reasonably expect a fair hearing. I know that 'Callaghan' would say that the Magistrates are independent, but they are often led in their decisions by the Clerks, and the Clerks are real employees of one part of the 'Partnership', so they will be biased.
To anyone outside this cosy little arrangement, it reeks of injustice. How can anyone involved in the justice system allow this without comment. Ah, yes, it's the money that does the talking, of course!

Indeed, but this looks like a case of someone from within the cosy little arrangement realising what effect this is having on the Partnership's credibility.

The Councillor in this weeks letter made the point that as a councillor, if a matter comes up for discussion, and one of the councillors has a connection to the issue, they have to declare an interest and are barred from voting on the issue - and in some cases might not even be allowed in the chamber.

An interesting point!

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

I've always thought this a bit silly. If you are an expert on a subject by virtue of having a business which operates in the same field, then you are barred from taking part in any discussion and your expertise is lost.

A much better idea is the public declaration of an interest and then others can view your comments in that light. It is the concealment of a vested interest which is dangerous.

Unfortunately, in the case of SCPs, we all know who is involved but our opinion that bias might be present counts for nothing.

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Malcolm W.
The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not represent the views of Safespeed.

AIUI you are disbarred from discussing matters which might give you a monetary advantage, or if your vote might give somebody else an advantage because of your connection.
If it is just a matter of expertise, then you input is still welcomed - up to the point where a vote might be taken to allocate funds, or permit a project.

In practice, our school governors were discussing rental of the hall, and one of the governors was a member of the organisation hireing the hall, so he was not party to the negotiations on the level of the rent, but did contribute to the discussion on the level of service and equipment made available at other halls.
This allowed us to better judge a fair hire charge.

The Court Service is a partner in the SAFETY Camera Partnership - but you dont see magistrates handing out road safety leaflets, or giving advice in court as to what is SAFE.
They only hand out penalties, and judgements on the legalities of a drivers actions or circumstances, and here in Cumbria seem to swallow every story the CSCP tell them, without proper regard to the rules under which the cameras should be operated.

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

So isn't it lucky that CSCP always, without exception, tell the truth, otherwise that would be a real problem. Lying when lives were at stake would make you a real contemptible sack of shit after all.

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Paul Smith: a legend.

"The freedom provided by the motor vehicle is not universally applauded, however: there are those who resent the loss of state control over individual choice that the car represents. Such people rarely admit their prejudices openly; instead, they make false or exaggerated claims about the adverse effects of road transport in order to justify calls for higher taxation or restrictions on mobility." (Conservative Way Forward: Stop The War Against Drivers)

(as reaches for another sheet from the stack of police letterheaded paper.......)

Im feeling left out, he hasnt sent me a letterheaded police paper yet, it could always come in useful when i need to wipe my .........nose.

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"Safety" Scamera Partnerships;
Profitting from death and misery since 1993.

Believe nothing- Question everything.

It's gone awfully quiet on this thread and this part of the Forum of late.
Does that mean that Callaghan and his lickspittles have reduced their cash-collection exercises? Surely not, after all they must continue to try to justify their unearned salaries.
Let's not be letting him off the hook.

Dont worry, nobody is slacking off - including Callaghan who is as busy as ever persecuting little old ladies, and the like, to no real purpose.
He seems to be enjoying the freedom to roam, and fatal accidents have plummeted since April - to 41 to date from 48 in the same period in 2006!

However the serious injury statistics are up since the cameras went native - from just 233 in 2006 to 242 in the same period of 2007!
That's 283 KSI's so far THIS year as opposed to 283 KSI in the same period LAST year.
It's worth bearing in mind that 2006 was a near record year for fatalities in Cumbria so to be able to improve on that figure is no mean feat.

In the meantime, Kevin's glib comment on the CSCP forum about Steve looking good in a dress seems strangely prophetic, as Steve recently turned up on the News and Star forum, calling himself Emma r - indeed "she" resides at Steve's address!
I suppose I'll have to turn in my Rupert Bear badge to the local constabulary for revealing that... but I found it so amusing!

The News & Star is part of the CN (Cumbria Newspapers) Group - who carry out the dodgy surveys on behalf of the CSCP.
Regulars to this forum will not be surprised that Emmar failed to answer questions posed on the N&S forum! But if you wish to join in, you'll have to wait until the forum is back up and running, as ALL CN Group forums are at present closed due to server issues.

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

I have emailed Safer Roads for Cumbria as there appears to be a discrepancy in their figures and the CSCP ones. SRFC have one extra fatal in January
Slight Injury figures are well down on CSCP ones!

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

Safer Roads for Cumbria have now withdrawn their effort to show statistics, in favour of a link to the CSCP site.


This driver was prosecuted by the CSCP despite not having travelled the required 10 metres between pictures.
So it's not just statistics they can't get right!

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!