We are all suspects
Highway chiefs have unveiled their vision for congestion charging in Shrewsbury, and many people oppose it because of the cost. But how many realise that there is another, more sinister reason for not wanting this scheme?
Highway chiefs have unveiled their vision for congestion charging in Shrewsbury, and many people oppose it because of the cost. But how many realise that there is another, more sinister reason for not wanting this scheme?
In London, which has a similar scheme, the cameras carry on recording everybody's details at evenings and weekends, even though the charge doesn't apply.
That's because it is part of a vast nationwide surveillance network called ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition). Details of your journey are sent electronically to the Government's national ANPR data centre and, even if you are suspected of no crime, your records are kept for two whole years.
I wouldn't mind if the system just checked cars against a properly-authorised 'watch list' of criminals and terrorists and then discarded information about the innocent. But it doesn't. We are all suspects now.
I challenge the highway chiefs to declare that Shrewsbury's congestion charge will not be part of this surveillance network. But they won't, because their hands will be tied by a Government that is daily chipping away at our freedom and privacy.
ANPR, mobile phone tracking, ID cards . . . we need to stop these intrusions creeping into our private lives. It's quite simply none of their business.
Dr Robert Findlay, Shrewsbury
