http://www.getreading.co.uk/story.asp?intid=13407
Victory after parking next to speed van
5/12/2005
Court: case dropped against workman who refused to move
A carpenter who wound up on the wrong side of the law for refusing to move his legally parked van has had the case against him dropped.
Glen Southern, of Little Heath Road, Tilehurst, called the Evening Post in June after being told by police he was to be reported for obstructing an officer.
The threat came when he refused to shift his white Transit van, which was parked in the car park at the front of Burghfield Village Stores, to give a police speed camera vehicle a better view of the road in Burghfield Common.
Mr Southern was working at the village store providing an estimate for new doors for the owner when he was told by a police officer to move his van from the parking bay.
The 38-year-old said: “I didn’t see why I should move my van because I had a perfectly legitimate reason to park there.”
At the time, there were no alternative parking spaces in the car park and he would have had to park on the busy Reading Road where the police officer was running his speed trap.
After telling his story on the front page of the Evening Post, Mr Southern heard nothing for more than five months until he was called to Reading Magistrates’ Court last week.
Mr Southern arrived at court in his best suit with photographs he had taken of the incident on Wednesday, May 25.
He also had a letter from the owner of the shop confirming he had business with him that day and was parking in the car park with permission.
Mr Southern said: “I showed the prosecuting solicitor my photographs and the letter before the hearing in the morning.
“Then I sat in the court and waited to see what would happen. The prosecutor asked for the case to be withdrawn and that was that.
“I was very pleased, although I think it must have been a waste of taxpayers’ money to take the matter that far.
“You have to wonder whether the police haven’t got better things to do than prosecuting someone just getting on with their job in a perfectly legal way.”
Dan Campsall, communications manager of the Thames Valley Safer Road Partnership, which administers the police speed camera vans, said: “Although we are involved with the speed cameras and the prosecutions connected with speeding, a matter of prosecution for obstructing a police officer would not be our decision.
“That would have to be a matter for the police.”
A spokesman for Thames Valley Police said: “Whether or not a prosecution goes ahead is a matter for the Crown Prosecution Service.”
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