'ULEZ 'Blade Runners' Target Chiswick
ANPR cameras on Milnthorpe Road and Park Road with their cables severed
July 31, 2023
Eight cameras used to enforce the Ultra Low Emission Zone in the Chiswick have reportedly had their cables cut.
The action is believed to be the work of a group that styles themselves as the Blade Runners who have posted on Tik Tok about their activities and claim to have 100 members across the country.
Photos released on social media show the wires at the back to the cameras severed.
The cameras reportedly vandalised are at Eastbourne Road, Milnthorpe Road, Park Road, Devonshire Road, Dorchester Grove, Church Street, Burlington Lane and Palladian Gardens.
Chiswick has a high number of ULEZ camera because, at the moment, the scheme does not operate on the section of the A4 between Chiswick Roundabout and Hogarth Roundabout, increasing the number of entry points to the zone.
The Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) devices are used to levy the daily charge and fines on non-compliant vehicles entering the zone. Currently Chiswick is on the outer edge of the zone but it is due to be extended to the M25 on 29 August.
A challenge to the expansion in the High Court failed last week.
The group appears to have started its activities in April when cameras in the Chiswick area were vandalised and police charged two men with damaging cameras in May. In all 96 incidents of damage to cameras have been reported in the London area this year.
A man claiming to be from the Blade Runners group gave an interview to the Mail Online in which he said they planned to remove all of the ANPR devices. Disguising his identity with a balaclava, he said that he had personally removed 34 and the group had taken down or disabled hundreds.
He said, 'In terms of damage it's way more than what [Khan and TfL] have stated. It's at least a couple of hundred.
'Snipping, damaging with hammers, painting, disabling on a circuit level and removing. They are unbolted and they are snipped.
'The tools they use to install them are the ones we use to remove it. We don't want this. It's a way to try to... restrict our movements.'
A pile of ULEZ enforcement cameras that the 'Blade Runners' claim to have removed. Picture: Twitter
A spokesperson for TfL said 'Vandalism on our network is unacceptable. All incidents are reported to the police for investigation.'
The Mayor of London remains committed to expanding the scheme despite reservations about it within his own party following Labour’s defeat at the Uxbridge by-election. He said, 'We know every day that there are people dying prematurely.
'There are children with stunted lungs because of air pollution, adults with a whole load of health issues.
'So we’re going to carry on doing what we can to support Londoners [with the expansion].
'But the reality is that actually 95 per cent of Londoners who drive a car in inner London have a compliant vehicle. In outer London, it’s around 90 per cent.
'Clearly, we need to make sure that more Londoners with non-compliant vehicles have the support they need.'
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