Cllr James Hockney LLB (Hons)

Police enforcement this weekend.

This weekend a major car meet of 300+ cars took place at the Innova Business Park.

There was danger of injury to the spectators and the Police closed the event down. With a stop site set up at the entrance to Innova Business Park. All vehicles were stopped and examined as they left.

However some participants broke down a wooden fence and exit barrier – enabling them to avoid the Police stop site.

Enforcement includes:

6x Notices of Intention to Prosecute. Including dangerous driving.

1x Arrest wanted on warrant.

4x Vehicles seized for no insurance

3x Stop and search

1x Lock knife seized

1x Possession of cannabis

19x TOR prosecutions including: no licence, not in accordance, plates and other construction and use offences.

50x Community Protection Warnings.

30x+ Section 59’s (s59). Once the Police issue the first S59 – a repeat offence within 12 months means the Police can seize the vehicle.

What the Council needs to do;

• Seek injunction against car cruising / meets. (as many other Councils have).
• Deploy ASB Council officers at car meet hot spots over the evening weekends.
• Deploying mobile CCTV to these locations.
• Amend the protection order – PSPO – to cover the whole of the Borough.
• Continue to press that the former B&Q car park and Innova Business Park car park have enhanced security measures installed.

What TfL / Mayor of London needs to do;

• Introduce noise cameras.
• Deliver average speed cameras along Southbury Road junction to Great Cambridge Road roundabout.
• Bring back the enhanced resources of the Vision Zero operation – to assist the current Policing / Operation Ghost Freak efforts.

What you can do to help:

Please write to your MPs, GLA member and Councillors calling for the above.

A10 Petition – Presented

The petition was presented to City Hall the other week with over 2,000 signatures. We will await the response from the Mayor.

This is secure average speed cameras along Southbury Road to Great Cambridge Road roundabout – our first petition secured the average speed cameras along the A10 Southbury Road to Bullsmoor – lets hope the second petition also succeeds.

The A10 has some of the highest levels of speeding and accidents in London.

Average speed cameras / noise cameras:

Since the petition was started the technology of noise cameras has come along. This technology is still in the trial stages. It was disappointing that the Mayor of London is still not supporting deploying noise cameras – despite the real need for them – we will keep pressing for action.

Background action: 

As part of the campaign to improve A10 road safety has included car meets – as these issues are interlinked. I have been holding multi-agency meetings over the years to try and move the issue forward – working with the Council, Police and TfL/GLA.

Public meeting:

I am working with others to organise a public meeting next month – scheduled for October 9th.

I appreciate the frustration on the ongoing issue – having been pressing on it for nearly five years myself!

What has been secured in that time:

1. Average Speed Cameras on the northern section of the A10 above Southbury Road.
2. Operation Vision Zero between 2019-2021
3. Operation Ghostfreak between 2021 to date.

What the Council needs to do;

• Seek injunction against car cruising / meets. (as many other Councils have).
• Deploy ASB Council officers at car meet hot spots over the evening weekends.
• Deploying mobile CCTV to these locations.
• Amend the protection order – PSPO – to cover the whole of the Borough.
• Continue to press that the former B&Q car park has security measures installed.

What TfL / Mayor of London needs to do;

• Introduce noise cameras.
• Deliver average speed cameras along Southbury Road junction to Great Cambridge Road roundabout.
• Bring back the enhanced resources of the Vision Zero operation – to assist the current Policing / Operation Ghostfreak efforts.

What you can do to help:

Please write to your MPs, GLA member and Councillors calling for the above.

A10 Petition – Presented

The petition was presented to City Hall on Thursday with over 2,000 signatures. We will await the response from the Mayor.

Thank you to everyone who has signed the A10 petition for average speed cameras along Southbury Road to Great Cambridge Road roundabout. Our first petition secured the average speed cameras along the Southbury Road to M25 – lets hope the second petition also succeeds.

Average speed cameras / noise cameras:

Since the petition was started the technology of noise cameras has come along. This technology is still in the trial stages. It was disappointing that the Mayor of London is still not supporting deploying noise cameras – despite the real need for them – we will keep pressing for action.

Background action: 

As part of the campaign to improve A10 road safety has included car meets – as these issues are interlinked. I have been holding multi-agency meetings over the years to try and move the issue forward – working with the Council, Police and TfL/GLA.

Public meeting:

I am working with others to organise a public meeting next month – scheduled for October 9th.

Securing car-parks:

Many car-parks have seen safety measures taken to discourage car-meets. However, despite requests for security measures on the former ‘B&Q’ site (Dearsley Road) have been delayed for over a year – due to one of the leaseholders failing to sign-off on the proposals to date.

Latest Policing result over weekend:

The Police shut down the car meet at the former B&Q site over the weekend with the following results;

1x Arrest for Drug Drive. 1x Arrest for Possession of Cannabis and ID document offence. 1x Community Resolution for Drugs. Total Vehicles seized: 4x cars. 4x PG9 (roadworthy prohibition). 5x Stop and search. 22x TORs for offences including licence plate breaches, no seat belts, vehicle defects. 1x PND possession cannabis. 15x Section 59 issued at the time.

Policing results over past year (in addition to the above).

10x arrests (disqualified driving, offensive weapons and drugs). 51x vehicles seized ( breaking previous section 59 warnings and no insurance). 61x summons for construction and use. This is for changes such as exhausts without baffles, blacked out windows, non compliant number plates etc. The driver of the vehicle is summonsed to court for essentially an un-roadworthy vehicle which would fail an MOT. 180x Community Protection Warnings. 33x Section 59 warnings. The Police over this time have closed down large meetings at Lock Field Avenue, Innova Business Park, Lee Valley Recreation Centre and Dearsley Road (former B&Q).

I appreciate the issue is a frustrating one – but a lot of effort is going on behind the scenes to tackle the issues. And progress is being made. But there is a lot more to do – please write to your elected representatives calling for action as mentioned above.

The years long campaign to tackle speeding, noise and car meets continues.

It is worth noting that the A10 has some of the worst levels of speeding in London and sadly lives have been lost. We will not rest on improving road safety.

A10 Petition – Presented

The petition was presented to City Hall on Thursday with over 2,000 signatures. We will await the response from the Mayor.

Thank you to everyone who has signed the A10 petition for average speed cameras along Southbury Road to Great Cambridge Road roundabout. Our first petition secured the average speed cameras along the Southbury Road to M25 – lets hope the second petition also succeeds.

Average speed cameras / noise cameras

Since the petition was started the technology of noise cameras has come along. This technology is still in the trial stages. It was disappointing that the Mayor of London is still not supporting deploying noise cameras – despite the real need for them – we will keep pressing for action.

Background action 

As part of the campaign to improve A10 road safety has included car meets – as these issues are interlinked. I have been holding multi-agency meetings over the years to try and move the issue forward – working with the Council, Police and TfL/GLA.

The campaign has succeeded in dedicated Police resources to tackle car meets, known as ‘Operation Ghost Freak’.

I am also working with the Police to organise a public meeting.

Securing car-parks

Many car-parks have seen safety measures taken to discourage car-meets. However, despite requests for security measures on the former ‘B&Q’ site (Dearsley Road) have been delayed for over a year – due to one of the leaseholders failing to sign-off on the proposals to date.

What the Council needs to do;

• Seek injunction against car cruising / meets. (as many other Councils have).
• Deploy ASB Council officers at car meet hot spots over the evening weekends.
• Deploying mobile CCTV to these locations.
• Amend the protection order – PSPO – to cover the whole of the Borough.
• Continue to press that the former B&Q car park has security measures installed.

What TfL / Mayor of London needs to do;

• Introduce noise cameras
• Complete the corridor of average speed cameras
• Bring back the enhanced Vision Zero operation – to assist the current Policing efforts.

Latest Policing result over weekend.

The Police shut down the car meet at the former B&Q site over the weekend with the following results;

1 x Arrest for Drug Drive.

1 x Arrest for Possession of Cannabis and ID document offence.

1 x Community Resolution for Drugs

Total Vehicles seized: 4x cars

4x PG9 (roadworthy prohibition)

5X Stop and search

22x TORs for offences including licence plate breaches, no seat belts, vehicle defects

1x PND possession cannabis

15x Section 59 issued at the time.

I appreciate the issue is a frustrating one – but a lot of effort is going on behind the scenes to tackle the issues. And progress is being made.

Bush Hill Park Ward – Community Road Watch – volunteers sought.

Delighted to say we are relaunching the project – which gives local residents the opportunity to work side by side with their local police teams, and use speed detection equipment to identify speeding vehicles in their communities.

If you would be interested in helping please message me.