Well BIG BROTHERS HERE by the end of 2006

Just off of Pistonheads, full text below

http://www.pistonheads.com/news/default.asp?storyId=12432

GATSO 2 ARRIVES

Pervasive surveillance imminent as national database fires up to watch us all

ANPR camera: they're watching usThink that automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) is only there to catch the guilty, the uninsured, the tax dodger? Think again.

Britain's top traffic cop has plans for a national surveillance network of cameras that will track every car, everywhere. According to an article in the Sunday Times and analysed in The Register, Meredydd Hughes wants the cameras installed every 400 yards on motorways, as well as at supermarkets, petrol stations and in town centres.

The unobtrusive, dull-looking and small cameras will be installed as a trial on the M42 to enforce variable speed limits, after which the plan is that they'll be installed every 400 yards along every motorway. Data from the cameras will be collated nationally with the aim of tracking every car, information that will be stored for two years, whether you're guilty or not.

It'll be managed from a new control centre in Hendon, in north London, from where as many as 50 million number plates will be processed daily. And it's not some far-off dream either: it's planned to be in place by the end of 2006.

The system is going ahead under the pretence that it's just about checking tax and insurance. But as some observers have already noted, checking every vehicle's tax and insurance details every 15 seconds is massive overkill. Unless of course, it's also planned that the system could make Gatsos obsolete and act as speed cameras too -- which ties into the Government's idea of enforcing speed limits rigidly, as we reported yesterday (see link below).

The database is already being built, without any form of Parliamentary approval process having been undertaken, and it promises to be one of the most pervasive surveillance systems on the planet.

Still think we live in a free society where the right to do what you please and go where you please without state interference is among the most basic rights in our (unwritten) constitution? Not for much longer...

Interesting reading.........but once is enough!

Interesting reading.........but once is enough!

just checking

Indeed I got it the first time

I'm more than happy to tell the police everytime I take a ****, though I doubt they will want to know that

Umm time to buy a 4x4 and move to a country where electricty is hard to come by, let alone # thousand cameras and cabling and delays while folk install them.

It's gauls me in this day and age....I want off this showboat called life in England.

Interesting reading.........but once is enough!

He's just posting every 400 yards!!

Somehow, I don't think the system will be up and running by next year, considering how much more complicated it will be than the CSA or tax credit systems, which the government have completely failed to get working on time!

Although seeing how you can't get on or off a motorway anywhere other than at a junction, having a camera every 400 yards can only be as a cunning way to monitor your speed...

Wouldn't mind being on the board of whatever company won the contract for it, though! "Sorry, Mr Darling, we're having development problems. Please can we have another

Any idea of the cost of implementing a camera every 400 yards? Astronomical. Also, just think of the logistics managing all this. It would put Heathrow ATC to shame, and even that can't cope with it :P

We're already the most CCTV'd country on the planet. Sounds like he wants to double over that record

Nah, I dont believe it. They cant put cameras every 400 yards on every motorway in the country. For a start they would have to be over each lane to get a clear view of the road and they're not going to go building gantries at that sort of distance.

Existing bridges may be more likely places to mount them.

Only motorways.... hmmm i can see parallel running A and B roads becoming congested as people avoid motorways

Not sure why I'm bothered to be honest. Next year I'll have roads like this to play on

On one of the car shows there was a brief bit about the bike show.Said bikers are giving up on'speed machines' and looking for cruise/pose type bikes given the thousands of speeding cameras.

Drives me mad this stuff re cameras.Wonder what car would be best for cruising around as an alternative to a quick car though :rubchin:

Does anyone else wonder about James Bond style number plates?

Does anyone else wonder about James Bond style number plates?

No...

Renting a house near houses of parliment,

Visting various docks, airports and layby's...

in short tactical nukes, sharp knife and cammo paint yes.

And just for the benefit of MI5, no of course I don't...if the goverment and lawmen can come up with BS like this, so can we.

NZ have speed camera's too...

Sister got knobbled for 60kms over limit...bit of paper only said 30 though as it was humainly completed after a road side interview.

I still wonder, instead of a fuel protest, we should have a national go slow day or better still national double or quits day...

The traffic control centre for the M25 already have the facility to check the speed of any vehicle using their cameras. They can use it to back up a police report on speeding and alert the cops to anyone travelling at warp speed that they aren't already chasing.

The traffic control centre for the M25 already have the facility to check the speed of any vehicle using their cameras. They can use it to back up a police report on speeding and alert the cops to anyone travelling at warp speed that they aren't already chasing.

Does that include slip roads and very tight corners aka roundabouts?

Fecked if I know!

It's gauls me in this day and age....I want off this showboat called life in England.

So do I.

Been thinking about moving to Czech for some time (family living out there). So tempting now though - even the motorway speed limits are higher (130 KM/H)

Anyone consider the practicalities of storing data of 50,000,000 vehicles a day, collected from 1000s of cameras all over the UK, for a period of 700 days?

It ain't going to happen. Just yet.

Arrrggghhh, this type of talk makes me mad :cussing: . Has anyone in our poxy government stopped to ask themselves why?. Why do we need all these cameras and monitoring systems, is it to reduce speed on the motorways in which case what for?, these are the safest roads to drive on in the country, most accidents happen within two miles of your'e front door!. Is it to trap uninsured drivers or untaxed vehicles, if so there are far more logical and easier ways to do this, the DVLA should be a good place to start!!.

:soapbox:

I'm all for it. If you break the law, pay a fine. If you like your money, stay within the law. The law is to benefit everyone and ensure everyone is as safe as possible. It is not so some boy racer can go screaming down the outside lane of a motorway with whatever car they can afford and get off scotfree. No tax should be a simple fine, it already is but relys on police prescence, but this just automates things a bit. No MOT, means no insurance, which means a nice big fine, which is nice. No insurance, then your a complete pillock, fine time.

On the other side, think about it. Your car gets stolen, is it likely to be stored around the corner from you, or moved quickly to another town? What is the quickest way to another town? MOTORWAY! So then the police can help track down car theives.

Bring it in I say.

Nah' date=' I dont believe it. They cant put cameras every 400 yards on every motorway in the country. For a start they would have to be over each lane to get a clear view of the road and they're not going to go building gantries at that sort of distance.

Existing bridges may be more likely places to mount them.[/quote']

dont be so sure.......

drive along any motorway or many major roads and look carefully at the surface ....... :eek: maybe better to be driven along the road

you will see at regular intervals a pattern set into the road with tracks going to the road side- these appear to be speed related and with the amount of sensors set into the road they would be quite capable of checking speed on all lanes at once :(

also most motorways have had cables in purple trunking installed along vast sections of the road.....

maybe big brother is nearer to watching us all than you think :(

have a good look - the sensors are like fine cuts in the road surface the look to be filled with bitumen- a bit like the ones you can see on the approach to traffic lights

you will see at regular intervals a pattern set into the road with tracks going to the road side- these appear to be speed related and with the amount of sensors set into the road they would be quite capable of checking speed on all lanes at once :(

If you mean the ones that are white lines, they are for stationary police. There is a set time frame in which it should take you to go from one line to the next, break that time and its very clear you are speeding.

If you mean the ones that are white lines, they are for stationary police. There is a set time frame in which it should take you to go from one line to the next, break that time and its very clear you are speeding.

no not those ones........ these are actually set INTO the road and are fine black lines so unless you concentrate they are hard to see

The purple trunking I have been told is for cable companies, by running along Motorways they can cover large distances with "minimal" disruption but this could all be for the new scameras