Car Insurance
Tracking cameras to spot uninsured vehicles
Tue, 18 Oct 2005
A pilot scheme in Newcastle is to use roadside cameras in order to identify cars that are untaxed, uninsured or stolen.
The £1 million scheme will use automatic number plate recognition (ANRP) cameras to track cars traveling to and from the city and around the Tyne and Wear area.
Not only will the information gathered be used by the council to spot vehicles without car insurance or outdated tax disks, but may also be used with a view to finding a congestion solution for Newcastle city centre.
Vehicle frequency and distance traveled will be assessed in order to configure a possible road-charging scheme.
A spokesman for the scheme told The Observer: "It means we can get a picture of how many people are doing very short journeys. We are not tracking identity; we are simply tracking vehicles to establish journey patterns."
The scheme has already attracted criticism however from those who believe that information stored on the council's database system represents an intrusion into people's everyday lives.
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