Car number plate cameras 'first step towards tolls'

Published on Sunday 18 February 2007 00:05

MOTORING organisations and opposition MSPs expressed concern yesterday that the new £1.25m number-plate recognition camera network was the first step towards introducing road tolls in Scotland.

The Executive says the scheme is designed to track drivers to analyse journey times and identify congestion hot-spots to get to grips with traffic jams.

But opposition MSPs have pointed out that the scheme is one of the essential parts of the planned road-tolling scheme, which has attracted furious opposition from drivers. They have also accused ministers of imposing a surveillance system on the quiet.

Transport Scotland, the Executive's road, rail and ferry quango, is seeking contractors to supply and install a network of 200 automatic number-plate recognition (ANPR) cameras along Scotland's trunk roads.

The 1.25m contract will see the cameras linked to Transport Scotland's new traffic headquarters on the outskirts of Glasgow so that the journey times and congestion data can be analysed and relayed to other motorists via roadside screens.

However, motoring organisations also called for ministers to come clean on whether the cameras would be used as part of a road-tolling system.

Scottish Tory transport spokesman David Davidson said: "This is nothing more than a premeditated move to introduce road-tolling by the back door. It doesn't matter whether you have a gizmo under the bonnet or not, they will track you. We should be worried about the civil liberties issues too."

A Transport Scotland spokeswoman said that the agency would not be retaining vehicle data and that they had no role in implementing road tolls. "Transport Scotland's purpose for these cameras is to generate journey time information," she said. "Any decision to implement road-tolling in Scotland would be a decision for Scottish ministers, not the Agency."

A Scottish Executive spokeswoman said: "Transport Scotland are using this equipment as a way to analyse travel times. It is not linked in any way to the issue of road pricing. As the data will not be stored, there will be no civil liberties issues."