Noise cameras could be 'game changer' for Plymouth
Plymouth City Council wants people to be caught in the act with new camera technology
Moves to install noise cameras to crack down on anti social driving are being stepped up in Plymouth after the police and crime commissioner was accused of being “ambivalent” on the subject.
Plymouth City Council wants people to be caught in the act with new camera technology and be among the first in the region to have a ‘vehicle nuisance public protection order’ covering engine revving, racing, wheel spins, convoy cruising and amplified music from vehicles.
High numbers of complaints have been made to councillors in the St Peter and the Waterfront and Plymstock Radford wards of the city where noisy drivers have been doing circuits around local roads late at night and in the early hours, waking up residents.
Plymouth’s police commander, chief superintendent Alexandra Doughty recently confirmed that anti social driving was one of her key priorities recognising that residents were understandably fed up with riders who attach “really loud exhausts” on their motorbikes or “rev their vehicle engines”.
At a Devon and Cornwall police and crime panel meeting last week, Cllr Chris Penberthy (Lab, St Peter and the Waterfront) asked for greater commitment from the police and crime commissioner Alison Hernandez who is awaiting the outcome of a noise camera trial in Paignton.
The councillor said Ms Hernandez’s statement that the trial would help inform whether similar approaches could be considered elsewhere in the future was “not helpful and very ambivalent”.
He said he had been trying to get noise cameras, which are equipped with a microphone and an automated number plate recognition (ANPOR) system, for a long time.
Ms Hernandez said she was “still a little bit on the fence” until she could see it making a real difference to communities, as the cameras were “expensive and tricky to implement”.
She urged people to report any incidents and log the details which could result in cars being removed from individuals.
She said Teignbridge District Council had been “excellent” at using community protection warnings and notices to tackle this issue as drivers often stopped their behaviour if they knew their vehicle would be taken away.
Cllr Penberthy told the commissioner he was not going to get out of bed at 4am to go down to the traffic lights where engines were being revved in order to get a registration number for something to happen.
“The reality is that a lot of the worst offences around vehicle noise happen at night on a street and by the time someone has got outside the vehicle is not going to be there anyway so I think we need to think differently,” he said.
His concerns were reiterated by Cllr Daniel Steel (Lab, Plymstock Radford) who despite bringing an anti-social case review forward which led to a police crackdown in his area, the problems are still continuing.
He said there was “a lack of ambition” by the commissioner when communities were “crying out for help”.
“We have a fantastic local policing team but they are not miracle workers,” he said. “Using technology would free up police time. Noise cameras are not a panacea but they could be a game changer.”
Ms Hernandez denied that her office was acting as a blocker and suggested councillors in Plymouth visit Paignton to hear from the police about how the noise camera was working.
At a meeting of Plymouth City Council’s cabinet on Monday, Cllr Penberthy, who is cabinet member for cooperative and community development, said the council had already agreed to helping with the costs of cameras, had the backing of the local police and would be trying to convince the police and crime commissioner that it was the right thing to do.
He said the London borough of Kensington and Chelsea was the first to trial this technology and now had nine cameras which had led to hundreds of enforcement actions and generated around 1,000 fines.
Along with cameras, Plymouth could be among the first to have vehicle nuisance public protection order, with fixed penalty notices issued by police and council officers for bad behaviour.
“We have the potential to be innovative and to help the people of Plymouth here. I hope the police and crime commissioner joins up with us,” he said.
Council officers have been asked to look in detail at the experiences of Kensington and Chelsea and work with local police to move forward on this. A public consultation is expected to follow.