£5000 fines for VIP road lanes
Proposed Olympic VIP lanes will let ministers, athletes and corporate sponsors drive around London jam-free in 2012. But motorists who steer into the restricted routes could be hit with astronomical £5,000 fines, according to proposals put forward in the latest version of the London Olympics Bill.
The lanes, which will link venues across the city, are expected to operate from 6am-12midnight, and will be policed by cameras and enforcement officers. According to the Bill, which recently passed its committee stage in the House of Commons, prohibited drivers who enter the lanes or infringe the new Olympic Route Network could face the hefty penalty.
From; Drivers face £5k VIP lane fines, Julie Sinclair, Auto Express, 11th November 2007
More at; Auto Express
See also: Games Monitor
Submitted by Martin Slavin on Mon, 12/11/2007 - 11:25.
not new
Submitted by Martin Slavin on Sun, 25/11/2007 - 11:23.
I have just checked through the Act passed in 2006. There is no mention of these fines in it. In the above article it says "According to the Bill, which recently passed its committee stage in the House of Commons,".
I put this article there to draw attention to this draconian proposal still going through the Commons.
Martin
» reply
not new
Submitted by Charlie (not verified) on Sun, 25/11/2007 - 19:40.
here is chapter & verse in the Act I posted the link to, which received Royal Assent in March 2006 -
I stand by my original comment, it is a republishing of an old article.
Draconian indeed but done & dusted
I'm pretty sure there's no Olympics related legislation currently before parliament but correct me if I'm wrong
page 9
Section 15: Traffic regulation orders: enforcement
44. This section provides for the enforcement of traffic regulation orders made for
Olympic purposes. Subsection (1) allows for infringements of traffic regulation orders
made by the ODA over the ORN for the purposes of the Olympics to be punishable
with an increased fine (i.e. a maximum of £5,000; the standard fine is a maximum of
£1,000).... It will be the ODA
that will set the level of charge for a contravention of traffic regulation orders made
for the purposes of the Olympics
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by
not new
As I was saying before I accidentally submitted the previous comment -
this was originally reported in 2005 and refers to the bill being prepared at that time (The Times) but it's true that it did pass into law when the act went through in early 2006.
In fact the potential fines for breaches of the trading and advertising rules around the games are also many times higher than can normally be imposed by Magistrates. Also the ODA will have powers of enforcement allowing them to bypass the normal processes relating to traffic offence enforcement, entering property etc. This is especially worrying.
The full text of the act, which it might be useful to have somewhere on GamesMonitor for reference, it's worthy of close study: LONDON OLYMPIC GAMES AND PARALYMPIC GAMES ACT 2006