ANPR camera plan for Stamford’s pedestrianised High Street after Reform UK scraps rising bollards scheme
With plans to install bollards to protect shoppers crushed by Reform UK, numberplate recognition cameras are being reconsidered.
Rising bollards for Stamford’s pedestrianised High Street had been approved by Lincolnshire County Council when it was Conservative-led.
But since Reform UK won a majority in the May election, it has reviewed what had previously been approved and decided not to spend £60,000 on Stamford’s bollards.
A petition launched by Lincolnshire county councillor Kelham Cooke (Con - Stamford East) attracted the signatures of more than 440 people who wanted bollards back in the budget.
But at a meeting of Stamford Town Council on Monday (October 27) members decided to revisit the use of automatic number plate recognition cameras as a way to deter people from driving down the High Street between 10am and 4pm.
This is something they had considered back in 2021 and again in July last year, before deciding bollards that could be raised automatically at 10am and lowered at 4pm would be the better option.
Emergency vehicles are still permitted to access High Street during the day.
At Monday’s meeting, Coun Barry Devereux said the town council could not apply directly for the civil enforcement order needed to be able to check number plates against the national database, but either Lincolnshire County Council or South Kesteven District Council could.
Coun Anna Wotherspoon said South Kesteven District Council should be asked if its CCTV cameras, already installed in High Street, have an ANPR function, which could be switched on. If not, Stamford Town Council is considering spending £7,000 per new ANPR camera, with three needed - one at each end of the High Street, and one where Maiden Lane joins it.
Coun Yvette Diaz-Munoz, who is also a Stamford Street Pastor, said they could investigate applying for grant funding, with the Police and Crime Commission having supported Stamford Street Pastors’ work in the past.
The town council resolved to ask Lincolnshire County Council to consider ANPR and to ask South Kesteven District Council if it is able to use its existing cameras and for this purpose.
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