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Saturday 14 January 2012

The link with police the Prince, speeding & the money makers.

From Local Transport Today. 5th January 2012
Quotes West Midlands joint committee:
'Speed awareness courses are expected to be attended by 18,000 motorists. A percentage of the £80 course fee is retained by the police, generating an income of £650,000 for camera operations. The rest goes to the course provider, TTC2000. It has offered the police a £5 per client rebate, which would raise a further £90,000. The HA contributes £82,000 to camera costs.' 





We and Driver's Protest Union, have now established links with private profit, police, prosecutions, Speed Awareness courses and indeed speed limiting. We have written to Sir Peter Tapsell and copied other MPs the following letter:   Dear Sir Peter,



First may I wish you and yours the very best for the New Year.

As you know, I am very concerned about genuine, altruistic, non-profitable road safety and the unnecessary prosecution, conviction and disruption to perfectly safe drivers.

Almost daily I find a new vested interest company being promoted by the authorities, awarded by royalty, having major input on policy and indeed prosecution. The following is a list but the latest, a company called TTC Group,  is one where I find a direct link between its lucrative activities and PACTS, a private parliamentary lobby group with no road safety or driving expertise and which itself is loaded with vested interest companies in prosecution and profit, Brake an anti driver lobby group in the guise of a road safety charity, also with no expertise in road safety or driving either and Prince Michael's International Road Safety Awards scheme also loaded with vested interest road safety companies or groups.

TTC2000 have been running lucrative speed awareness courses for which the police and local speed camera partnerships get a cut of the income. So the prosecutions themselves are directly linked to vested interest companies who gain from cameras, speed limits, prosecution, points and indeed anti driver/car lobby groups too. PACTS is pro public transport yet seeks to advise Parliament on road safety and prosecution of private drivers.

So far, no Speed Awareness provider, like TTC2000, can tell me if their coerced students are told that 'speeding' cannot cause accidents, that speed cameras cannot see accident causes, and that the limit that got them there is totally arbitrary, without science or expertise. I have asked the driving expertise of their instructors to no avail. I have asked what profit there is? More seriously I have been unable to ascertain on what authority police can decide not to prosecute where an offence is disclosed on payment of money to a Ltd company? I don't know if you will have any better luck with such questions.  

I have already noted a company called RSS Ltd, set up by ACPO Ltd See ACPO's little helpers to make defence of speeding cases very expensive to deter drivers from defending themselves. This company provide alleged camera experts for evidence at court and are retained at cost by local forces specifically for that purpose. The deterrent of defending is the high expenses cost they will claim in the event of a proven case on top of their annual retainer by the local force. Do the police pay such firms for burglars, murderers, thieves & robbers? No!

I have recently raised with you Police Witness.com a company who is providing spying equipment, at great profit, in case a driver may do something wrong. See Policewitness.com penalise drivers for profit Amazingly, to my query as to if the Home Office & police are giving this activity their blessing, Nick Herbert of the Home office has so far endorsed this profitable spying on members of the public and ACPO Ltd have ignored my approaches on the subject. I currently await a reply from Nick Herbert to a follow up on this matter and an assurance that this spying will not be encouraged; especially as such conduct could be deemed likely to cause a breach of the peace.

Then there is the Prince Michael International Road Safety Awards scheme which seems to be this lucrative industry awarding itself, and indeed the number of OBE & MBEs to go with it all. See Prince Michael & Speed Camera Manufacturers. The scheme, financed by a speed camera manufacturer no less, and indeed TTC2000, who make money from speeding convictions and was also awarded, show that even Royalty has got itself involved with driver prosecution which by any standards is not at all desirable. Added to which the dimension that poor policy in road safety, based on profit will actually result in accidents ,injury and death. My concerns expressed to The Prince's Office about this unseemly connection with driver prosecution have so far been ignored.

When joint West Midlands Councils base their safety budget on the amount of Speed Awareness  they can expect, 18000 at £80 per hit, a projected business plan for £1.44 million pounds of which the police will get £650,000 and TTC2000 £790,000, then this is blatant planning not to stop 18000 speeders at all but a hope of getting at least that many. So this is why speed limits have been getting lowered all over the country. To create more speeders. Please do look at my site. www.youdrive.org.uk under the Speed Cameras label 'The speeding money go round' Surely the object should be nil 'speeders' not a desire for at least 18000 caught and offered a course!

So what I have established is not only a link in road safety profiteering but that the authorities and especially the police, are thus linked to anti driver and private car lobby groups.

It's about time PACTS itself  is not allowed to influence road safety policy at all. Not only have I identified vested interests in it, like TTC but most of it's comment on road safety and driving is incorrect because of vested interest.

We need to look at the whole road safety industry, who advises ministers and and indeed who is behind what policy and what their vested interests are.

So for example: AA  run Speed Awareness Courses and indeed profit from speeding points via their Insurance Wing too. They should have no input directly or indirectly via PACTS or any such means on Parliament in this important matter then should they? See AA's Edmund King in action.

Until vested interest, expertise and motive is addressed, PACTS and other alleged road safety groups should not be given the platform they are being given currently in a life and death matter that involves prosecutions too.
   
Yours sincerely,


Note: There is more death from accidents in the home than from any cause on the roads. So why aren't all these pious life savers concerned about that? No money in it?






2 comments:

  1. Glad you read the piece Peter. Part answer is in the pre-amble; the rest is under common knowledge or if not Google. However does it matter? It's the story and conclusions that should get your interest.

    ReplyDelete