2:30pm Monday 7th January 2008
By Oliver Evans
SPEED camera bosses have been criticised for parking mobile enforcement cars in a bus bay.
Householders on Watchet Lane, Holmer Green, said police should not be given a privilege denied to other drivers - but camera chiefs said the practice is within the law.
Resident Eileen Chapman, 66, said: "Nobody else would get away with it. I don't object really to them putting a camera there I just don't think it should be in the bus stop."
Peter Blakey, 50, a self-employed commercial manager, said: "Drivers are not allowed to park on that stop so why should the police be allowed? It could potentially be a bit of a hazard."
But others said they did not have a problem with the checks, which are carried out by Thames Valley Safer Roads Partnership.
Barbara Wasp, 79, said: "There is room enough for the bus and the police. It certainly makes the cars slow down."
Jeanette Crawford, 56, who runs a garden maintenance business, said: "For the amount of times a bus pulls up the time the speed camera is there then I don't think it makes an awful lot of difference."
Dan Campsall, spokesman for the camera partnership, said police were entitled to use the bays.
Bus companies are consulted and risk assessments are carried out to ensure the obstruction does not cause a danger to drivers, he said.
© Copyright 2001-2012 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.bucksfreepress.co.uk