IT sounded like a good idea. Deploy a CCTV van near schools and film inconsiderate motorists who think they have a right to park where they want, however dangerous.

But as is so often the way with these things someone decided the van was lying idle for the rest of the day and would be better off patrolling the streets.

The trouble is the government ruling is quite clear, councils are only meant to use cameras when it is impractical to use traffic wardens. And they are not to be used to generate parking tickets.

So why then has City of York Council served only 21 enforcement notices at school locations from these vans, while 637 have been issued elsewhere.

This equates to about 97 per cent of the total and motorists are up in arms. So too was Eric Pickles, the communities secretary, who last month said these CCTV spy cars can be seen ‘‘lurking on every street raking in cash for greedy councils, and breaking the rules that clearly state that fines should not be used to generate profit for town halls’’.

So he decided to ban them, for a month at least, before performing a U-turn worth at least three points on his licence by saying he actually meant the Government had no objections to camera cars being used when it was impossible to have an enforcement officer patrolling the streets.

Naturally York’s council welcomed this, but we are deeply concerned. Brandon Lewis, the high streets minister, calls the use of such vans a violation of the principles of Magna Carta and while we wouldn’t go that far, it does smack of snooping and targeting, rather than road safety.