There are few people more pro-police than I am. Even so, yesterday did them few favours and I find myself looking at the last two words on their logo with absolute incredulity.
On the Sunday of a Bank Holiday weekend, parking tickets were being issued around the Corporation Pier area of Hull's Old Town.
The offence I saw picking up a ticket was trivial beyond explanation - and even my normally calm wife was quite upset to witness this.We then left the city and were heading West on the dual carriageway called The Clive Sullivan Way whereupon we spotted a police van containing the absurdly named 'safety cameras'.
It was the location that was so interesting. It was placed at the very end of the 40 limit just a few hundred yards from the point where the road became derestricted.
There were NO safety issues - they were just out to 'nobble motorists' who were driving safely on virtually empty roads.
Ridiculous as this all was, on precisely the same spot six and a half years ago - under similar circumstances, to my personal knowledge - a driver who was actually under the limit was reported! (No - not me!) I wonder how many more there have been.
The unrelenting persecution of drivers neither "helps nor reassures". Not all that much "protecting" going on when using the law like a sledgehammer, either.
