Call for CCTV in wrong-way row
Tuesday 24th November 2009, 4:00PM GMT.
A vehicle appears to contravene traffic regulations by turning the incorrect way at a junction between St Mary's Place and Fish Street on St Mary's Street, Shrewsbury.
More CCTV cameras need to be installed to target motorists travelling the wrong way up a Shrewsbury street amid fears a pedestrian could get seriously injured, it was claimed today.
Up to 10 vehicles an hour are travelling the wrong way along Fish Street as a short cut through the town centre.
Now Councillor Maxwell Winchester and Shrewsbury’s Business Chamber have called for Shropshire Council to install new CCTV cameras along the street.
Councillor Winchester, member for Quarry and Coton Hill, said he wanted cameras to be installed at the junction and further up Fish Street.
He said: “I think CCTV is an excellent idea because motorists are driving dangerously and the wrong way down the street.
“It is a problem and a great worry to me that someone could get injured or worse unless something is done, so I would encourage CCTV at the junction.”
Peter Bettis, chairman of Shrewsbury Business Chamber, added to the calls for CCTV to be installed.
He said: “From my personal view, and that of the chamber, I can say that I think CCTV would be an ideal way of controlling unreasonable behaviour by motorists and pedestrians.”
Last week a parking attendant was almost knocked down by a motorist driving the wrong way.
Shropshire Council officer David Roberts said an attendant had to step back as a vehicle brushed his uniform.
Fish Street is unsuitable as a through road and is designated “Access Only”, but many drivers are failing to turn right.
Tim Sneddon, Shropshire Council’s head of Environmental Maintenance for central area, said the council already had some cameras trained on the area.
Shropshire Star on Twitter
Keep updated with the latest breaking news and content on our Twitter feed.
Lifestyle
Interactive Dining Out map
Hundreds of reviews by the Shropshire Star and Express & Star's teams to help you decide where to eat.
Entertainment
All the film reviews
Before you plan a trip to the pictures, get our critics' verdicts on all the latest movie releases.
OUR NEW APP
Get the new Shropshire Star app
Download the Shropshire Star’s new app to your iPad or iPhone to get one week of access to our digital newspapers absolutely FREE.
shropshirestar.com
Popular sections
Useful links
oh shut up and get on with life! more expense for shrewsbury council tax payers, now one is in any danger what so ever of being injured or knock down, unless they cross the road with their eyes shut.
stop wasting our time and concertrate on whether you will be re-elected next year (not).
Report abuse
Mr Bettis, could you please explain how this has anything whatsoever to do with your position?
Please keep your personal views seperate from your role, this has absolutely nothing to do with the business chamber.
Report abuse
yet another waste of our council tax, motorists have been doing this shortcut for years and i haven’t heard of any issues with pedestrians getting injured and I live right in the middle of town itself. I think this is yet another case of health and safety gone mad and a lack of common sense. I walk across this road quite often and have never found it a problem. I suggest that pedestrians open their eyes and don’t be so stupid to cross a junction without looking. Personally I feel that if you don’t have the brains to look out when crossing the road then you deserve to be run over – seriously just take a look at that wreck less driver crossing that junction he must be doing what, 5mph? Do you seriously expect motorists to be stuck in traffic ALL the way around town behind buses and taxi drivers and other idiots just to get to a place which is much quicker by going across this junction? That kind of time wasting and fuel wasting might be ok for the idiots that run the council and who get paid stupid amounts of money to come up with hideous looking sculptures around the town that nobody wants but for the average Jo who has to be places on time to earn anything or uses a lot of fuel as it is – this is hard to justify stopping. If you can provide evidence that this is a danger, give me statistics on injuries and deaths in the past 5 years and it might be justifiable, but if you’re going to clamp down on this one junction/area you may as well go and put speed humps down Wyle cop and ALL through the town center because that is where the dangers are and that is where idiots go 30mph. By the way, I cant stand motorists personally I think 90% of them are idiots and shouldn’t be on the roads, I am not a driver myself and even I am saying that this is a dumb idea. try spending the financial resources on something beneficial and something that is actually needed – make things easier for people not harder. Maybe putting a camera down by the English Bridge might be more beneficial to catch the brain dead fools who through the bin bags down to the river every week? I don’t know, but I’m just guessing that having stinky rubbish polluting the walkways and rivers is a little more of a problem than this.
Report abuse
Look at the picture.
As I stated on a previous discussion on this non-story: the driver is performing a manoevre whereby the vehicle is driving straight on but at a very slight oblique angle. If fact, if one exited Fish Street whilst adjacent to the RHS kerb, one could drive across to Market Place without turning the steering wheel to the left.
In fact, if you look at the front wheels of the Passat in the picture, they are already turning right which suggests that a left turn of the steering wheel was negligible.
And despite this, there are more calls for MORE CCTV!
MORE!!
We are already the most likely populace in the developed world to be videoed going about our daily business! We have the highest number of CCTV cameras per capita in the developed world! Crime rates are not falling as they should be! And they ask for MORE CAMERAS!
I tell you, if Winky McBroon and his red cohorts get re-elected next year, us menfolk should be wary of being caught scratching (however clandestine) our giggleberries lest we get caught on CCTV for “lewd” behaviour.
Report abuse
Sorry Steve, I missed that. Could you say that again?
Report abuse
Actually Steve when I lived on Church Street this was a problem deliveries for businesses in this area were constantly hassled by people (not residents) using this road as a shortcut! Trying to get places quicker and thinking they had the authority to tell people to move faster!
WHy should people have to look for cars going the wrong way on a one way street? You say the do 5mph but they really dart across the road in the hope nobody sees them. i would say it is more than 5mph. I dont think this is unwarranted, that darwin thingy, however, is what is called a waste of money!!
Report abuse
Mr Bettis,
this has nothing to do with your position in the chamber.
Keep your personal prejudices seperate from your official role, if you cant do that then step down for someone who can concentrate on the job, more important than ever in the current economic climate.
Report abuse
What a waste of time and effort, can’t the councillors just keep quiet and go back to ruining Shrewsbury!
Report abuse
Complain all you like about the CCTV – if you weren’t breaking the law they wouldn’t install it so drivers who cannot read a one way sign and keep driving the wrong way are solely to blame for any additional CCTV as a result.
You may not like the law and think it’s a stupid rule in this case but no-one is above it.
Report abuse
I really do find it difficult to jusitify that the car is going against one way traffic, i’ve seen cars skid at more of an angle on loose gravel, imagine if it were snow and ice – heaven forbidd! like the other guy said, the kurbs are practically aligned, there is no steering involved really – however if you want MORE cars and MORE delivery vans going round the ENTIRE town putting MORE people in danger then go ahead – support this CCTV. It is people who bring this kind of waste and stupidity upon themselves by not using common sense, just use your damn loaf and look both ways.
Report abuse
I want to move to Shrewsbury. If everything’s so rosy that this is the worst someone can find to complain about, the place must be near-perfect.
Report abuse
#9 Suellen,
But drivers, and indeed the driver in the picture, are not breaking the law. They are not turning left. They are travelling straight on.
As Steve alludes to, if one has the necessary observational powers (which all drivers should at all times, be it central or peripheral) to see that there is no approaching traffic from the left, nor pedestrians in the immediate vicinity, then who EXACTLY is at risk from travelling straight on from the Fish Street exit? Who?
Or are you akin to Jim Hawkins on the subject of speed cameras (i.e. not interested on whether road safety is an issue, as long as “law breakers” are caught)?
Report abuse
Winja@ 12
Who the hell is Jim Hawkins – only one I know is a character in the Muppets Treasure Island!
It’s not so much about catching law breakers as it is about not making it so easy for the authorities to rip you off – this area is going to be targeted with on the spot fines judging by all the attention it’s getting. Some berk at the council will be reading your comments and will work out that there’s obviously money to be made out of drivers here – so why make it easy for them? Obey the rules, they’ll make no money and eventually leave it alone.
Then again if you enjoy paying out 60 quid a time for something you can easily avoid be my guest!
Report abuse
I went out and had a look at this junction to see what the fuss was about. You’re could hardly be described as driving against the flow of traffic, but, if you approach the junction at 90 degrees to Dogpole (as you should) then try to drive straight on without making a left turn, the right side of your bonnet is going to hit the jewellers and the left half if going to be on the pavement. So yes, it is definitely a left turn and therefore illegal. So stop doing it and stop moaning about people having to do something about the idiots who do make the turn.
Report abuse
How pathetic this all is.
It’s a simple manouvre that any reasonably competent driver can carry out in perfect safety -without risk- to ANYONE.
Pedestrians at al can get knocked over on any road – irrespective of the direction and position of traffic. There is I would say a responsibilty of a pedestrian to “look” when crossing roads!
The problem is though – someone has decided to put a “one way sign” up that “happens” to make it “technically” illegal – and that’s ALL.
So by that defintiion ALONE – you “shouldn’t do it”
So ….. following that logic … we’ll all becoming a nation of zombies following every little pathetic rule like sheep without ever questioning anything.
Maybe that’s what the government want?
Good grief!! – What a great future for the British Nation. Let’s hope we never have to fight another war!
However – what I suspect annoys most people is “why” has this been done??
I think we ALL know the REAL answer. and that is to put the maximum “buggeration factor” into driving in the hope we will give up.
If it was done for any other “real reason” then most if not all people would respect it.
It takes away the use of a perfectly adequate “short cut” which would save on time, fuel, and congestion – but NO – we have to abide by the silly little “rules” such as this that make life so frustrating when it shouldn’t be at all
Look ….. why not make this simple:
Let’s just BAN all traffic in Shrewsbury!
Report abuse
Less profitable for the council and cheaper solution!! :
Reverse the direction of the St Mary’s/RSI side of road so it is completely no entry! Instead, make the traffic turn down past the Yorkshire house, t-junction at the end of St Mary’s Place left takes you back to along Windosr Place towards M&S and right takes you around past the RSI and Drapers Hall so that the traffic comes out opposite the ‘problematic’ junction.
Report abuse
#13 Suellen
So what you are stating is that blind compliance to a “rule”, no matter how divisive and lacking in thought, has precedence over common sense and good driving practice, yes?
By the way, the Jim Hawkins I referred to is a Shropshire Radio presenter. With a propensity for “twittering” 140 characters of banality 140 times per day.
Report abuse
People who advocate breaking all these ‘little’ laws that they disagree with are causing even more of our tax money to be spent on stupid CCTV and speed cameras. Police cannot choose which laws to uphold, they are duty bound to enforce them all.
It’s simple logic that any dimwit should be able to grasp.
Report abuse
#18
No, Julian. The people causing more of our cash to be spent on stupid CCTV and speed cameras are those in power who consider surveillance, and utter compliance with every single law passed, to be “the right thing to do”. Notwithstanding the fact that CCTV and (certainly) speed cameras are not fit for their purported purpose.
And I thought this ideology had died when communism was kicked into touch by Gorbachev. Sadly, it seems not as long as Winky sits in No.10.
Report abuse