Spot the camera

The problems are continuing on Hills Road bridge. The hope of the single lane working finishing by Mon 18th has been dashed by technical problems and the weather. The hope had been to place 10 piles into the bridge in 5 days. Unfortunately the first pile took four days, after the steel reinforcement cage got stuck in the concrete and had to be drilled out. There was more progress last weekend with 4 piles placed, but high winds stopped the rig being used on Monday (so the road stayed open in both directions). The work may be finished by the end of the week, subject to no further delays.

The mobile CCTV that had been asked for for the duration of single lane working has been even more of a Saga. The intention when I requested this was to deter dangerous driving, and look out for dangerous traffic infringements to encourage more effective policing of the situation. 

On Monday 11th, the promised CCTV hadn't been put in place. Despite months of reminders and specific assurances I received only a week earlier that is was in hand, nobody from the County Council had spoken to CCTV at the City Council. A few phone calls later and this was fixed. Its tempting to say they shouldn't have bothered. In terms of deterrent, here is the photo from a similar angle to that for a driver from Cherry Hinton Road, about to turn right and mow down a bike on the bridge. The little yellow sign is the only warning that they are caught on camera (assuming they hadn't noticed the camera itself higher up the lamppost).

There are two cameras, at each end of the bridge. These may or may not be able to spot problems on the bridge - we may never know. The City Council CCTV operators don't believe that dangerous overtaking (or doubtless anything short of a serious injury accident) is a problem worthy of police involvement, and they are currently refusing to allow anyone to look at the tapes to understand what incidents of a lesser nature are occurring, so there is no prospect of using the cameras to help drive an enhanced police response to the problems. Not impressed, I just hope nobody is seriously injured during the rest of these works...