The Scottish Borders are considering putting in CCTV cameras to keep an eye on speed camera installations, the BBC reports (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/south_of_scotland/6293823.stm).

The Lothian and Borders Safety Camera Partnership is weighing up the move after having to replace seven of the Gatso cameras in the last three years. Machines have suffered various attacks including being set alight, vandalised, and even pulled over.

According to the BBC, partnership head Colin McNeil said: "There are companies there who would provide us with CCTV coverage of the cameras themselves - the cameras looking after the cameras kind of thing."

The partnership is also the body that was last year responsible for creating the perfect job - riding a motorcycle around the Borders chasing speeding motorists, with no requirement to pull them over or speak to them.

Protecting Gatso deployments not attached to motorcycles is what the CCTV is all about, though we detect some trace of a schism in the Rise of the Machines: it seems they no longer trust each other. ®

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