18/06/2026
"THE PARKING, THE CONSERVATIVES AND THE CAMERA”.
In today's news from Cllr Dr Andrew Glowacki……….
This week oscilated around Full Council meeting, where we discussed several issues, including the future of Rugby's CCTV system.
For years, Rugby businesses paid significant sums to Rugby First to operate the service. Following its demise, responsibility is now returning to the Council.
That is not necessarily a bad thing.
It will cost a substantial amount of money, but if it helps keep residents safe, most people would agree that money is being spent for a worthwhile purpose.
The question is what comes next.
Will future upgrades include AI-assisted facial recognition technology?
Let's travel back to 7 October 2024.
In the document called Public Agenda Cabinet 7 October 2024, Agenda Item 7, Section 1.2.1, Rugby Borough Council defines AI-assisted technology as:
"Any system which is able to make decisions based on data without the explicit involvement of a human user and/or receives input from, is modified by or utilises data which has been generated by a Large Language Model (LLM), Generative Adversarial Network (GAN), Neural Network (NN) or other similar structures..."
Notice something interesting.
The document does not specifically mention CCTV.
Instead, it defines what the Council considers AI to be.
When I asked during the meeting whether we were potentially opening the door to AI-assisted facial recognition systems in the future, a Labour councillor very helpfully managed to answer a completely different question.
I was informed that we must remain aware of facial recognition technology and that governance arrangements already exist.
That much is true.
I found the policy. It's the one above.
The real question is how that policy will be interpreted five or ten years from now.
Because today's "absolutely not" has a curious habit of becoming tomorrow's "well, technically..."
"The CONSERVATIVES AND THE CAR PARKS”.
Earlier in the meeting, the Conservatives proposed something rather radical.
No, not free parking.
Not even a trial of free parking.
Not a commitment to free parking.
Simply permission to explore whether free parking in the town centre might be feasible.
That's it.
Just permission given to officers to investigate the possibility.
Town centre businesses have been asking for this discussion for years.
Naturally, we at Reform UK supported the proposal.
If local businesses repeatedly raise the same concern, the least we can do is examine it properly.
To be fair, Labour and the Liberal Democrats did raise some legitimate points.
We were told that free parking had been tried at Christmas and did not produce the desired results.
We were also informed that two hours of free parking could disadvantage disabled residents because they might require longer than two hours. This argument was slightly weakened by the fact that many disabled residents already benefit from Blue Badge parking concessions, but nevertheless it was raised.
We also heard that perhaps three hours would be better than two hours.
Which, oddly enough, sounds like an argument for conducting a feasibility study rather than voting against one.
In the end, Labour's amendment passed.
The vote was 23 to 15 against, sending the proposal off on what I suspect will be a long holiday in the basement of local bureaucracy, where ideas are carefully stored until everyone forgets who asked for them and how long ago.
The vote was recorded by name, so once the minutes are published, I would encourage residents to have a look for themselves and see who voted which way.
After all, transparency is a wonderful thing.
Particularly when politicians are convinced nobody is paying attention.
I'm sure businesses in Rugby are now thrilled to hear that particular news...
