Safe Speed Forums

Hi All.
Will be going to North Wales shortly, for a few days with work and was hoping somebody might be able to tell me how to spot the difference between ANPR and mobile camera vans there.
Reading the posts has only succeeded in making me more confused.
What type of marking does each one have,or can they both be unmarked.
Do ANPR vans always have attendant cars further down the road or not.
Do ANPR vans have a camera only or laser and camera set up.
I was passing through North Wales a few weeks ago and passed a a van parked with only the rear end showing.
It was a Merc/Transit type with a high roof.There were no rear markings on the van.
It was on a country road that dropped from 60mph to 40mph as it entered a built up area.It was inside the 40mph stretch about 4-5 hundred yards, looking back towards the 60 section.
I was able to get a good look at it as a wagon further up the road was unloading some building materials and I was behind a line of cars waiting to pass
One rear door was painted white with no rear window while the other one had a darkened window and a camera lens could be seen looking through it.I could not see any other equipment under or over the camera lens.It looked just like a camera lens and nothing else.
My companion said that it was probably a traffic census van but I thought it might be an ANPR van.
What cast doubt in my mind was that never having seen a van of this description before and never close up, I was not sure of what I should be looking for.Hence my question.I thought that if it was a mobile camera van then I would pass the description on to friends who travel that way on business.

Cheers!!

Warning friends of a camera van might be concidered by some to be perverting the course of justice.

ANPR vans can be marked or unmarked
ANPR vans can opperate on thier own and with an army of tax collectors in police uniforms

Speed trap vans have to be marked police vans.

I just won't do business with places with excessive use of speed traps or parking tickets.

_________________
Speed limit sign radio interview. TV Snap Unhappy
“It has never been the rule in this country – I hope it never will be - that suspected criminal offences must automatically be the subject of prosecution” He added that there should be a prosecution: “wherever it appears that the offence or the circumstances of its commission is or are of such a character that a prosecution in respect thereof is required in the public interest”
This approach has been endorsed by Attorney General ever since 1951. CPS Code

Hello Anton.
Unfortunately I don`t have a choice at the moment as to where my work takes me,although I will have in the near future.As soon as that situation arises it will be goodbye Wales.
We used to have a second home in Wales.We bought the land and built the house on it.It was to have been our retirement home.That has now been sold.
Our friends and relatives used to come and stay,as well as rent cottages etc.They no longer go now.
I think that if more people,who could,voted with their feet and made sure that the people who mattered, knew why,then maybe things might change for the better.
Do mobile camera vans have to be marked all round.As I said I could not see the sides or front,only the back.
I was also unsure because of only being able to see a camera lens and nothing else.