DRIVERS incensed by the sight of Bexley’s mobile camera parking units breaching the borough’s parking restrictions have no grounds for complaint.

Bexley Council has confirmed they are entitled to break the rules.

The units, which consist of a CCTV camera mounted on a Smart Car, are used in parking hotspots around the borough such as outside schools where parents are consistently parking on zigzag yellow lines.

But many people have complained after spotting the cars parked on double yellow lines or breaking other parking restrictions, while filming drivers doing exactly the same thing.

The only difference is the owners of the filmed cars will receive penalty parking notices.

One angry shopkeeper Bernie Denyer, who owns a carpet shop in Gilbert Road, Belvedere, claims a CCTV Smart Car is in Belvedere Village every day filming motorists, often parked on a yellow line.

He said: “Sometimes the road is completely jammed because there is hardly any room for a bus to get by.”

Mr Denyer, 46, also complained the operator often did not put up a sign which is supposed to warn people the CCTV enforcement may be in operation in the area.

Driving instructor Mick Downes, 58, of Barnet Close, Erith, says he frequently sees the Smart Cars when he is driving around the borough.

He claimed: “I have watched the operator get out of the car, put up the sign, film parked cars, take down the sign and drive off.

“That is not within the spirit of the law.

“How can it be a warning sign, when the cars are already parked and filmed before the driver even returns?"

Bexley Council says where possible the Smart Cars should park in bays or where there are no restrictions, but if they need to, they can park in restricted areas to film.

A spokesman said: “On these occasions, the vehicles are exempt from parking regulations.

He added the operators of the cars were not legally obliged, in London, to put up warning signs.

He said: “However, in Bexley we do put signs up in the location we are enforcing.

“The cars are clearly marked as enforcement vehicles, as well as having a fairly big camera sitting on the roof.”