Everyone cutting back we are all in this together

[Snoop Bagg]

streaky said:

Or even:



BTW, did Lotus pay for the decal job? They're not cheap.

Streaky

Talk about a blast from the past:

[jazzyjeff]

AJS- said:

Wow a police Lotus? That makes a life of crime easy - you just keep going for 5 miles and they will almost certainly break down, overheat, fall to bits or catch fire, and you can drive off into the sunset!

[catso]

Mill Wheel said:

Only one wiper - that's a 50% saving on maintenance costs already!

Indeed but unless the pic was taken mid wiper sweep, I feel the wiper parking up the middle of the screen is a bit 'barry boy'.

[mph1977]

livery = couple of thousand quid at most- and it won't be because the actual area of material is smaller than than on a big estate / 4*4 / van and that's if you use the highest spec 3m branded stuff and put it on in the longest life way ...

vs the column inches it gets ....

Edited by mph1977 on Friday 14th January 12:04

[Knock_knock]

streaky said:

The vast majority of passing drivers will assume that the police force in question has puurchased the vehicle. Thta's what makes the message wrong, especially in these times of austerity.

Remember - perception is reality.

Streaky

Perhaps they should have made a bit of media splash then? Good publicity for the manufacture, good publicity for the Police. Then nobody could complain about wasted public money.

Oh...


KK

[Knock_knock]

As a continuation of my last thought, it has been mentioned lately that as part of the planning permission process for a new superstore, Tesco agreed to pay for the construction of a new Police station and associated road improvements etc.

I believe the figure quoted was a £7million station. I imagine that there would be some sort of leaseback arrangement with the force in question, but it would still represent an extremely good deal for the Police (and presumably Tesco!).

In the spirit of austerity and sending the right messages, should this offer, and offers like it, not be accepted?

KK

Edited by Knock_knock on Friday 14th January 13:02

[carl carlson]

A lotus as a cop car. Thats original?





Or perhaps not.

On a side note. Do those tyres look bald?

Edited by carl carlson on Friday 14th January 13:56

[Johnnytheboy]

I wonder if fitting the blue lights involved any permanent damage to the roof? i.e. it may have been a free loan by Lotus but I wonder how much it devalued the car?

[Johnnytheboy]

Snoop Bagg said:

Talk about a blast from the past:

From my friendly RS200 expert:

RS200 expert said:

It's an early 'demonstrator' car. As I recall, Boreham did it as a joke in 1986. There are others in the same sequence of pix.

It's a good laugh - on all mine, you remember that it was almost impossible to stow anything except a briefcase. Now think of two large coppers wearing funny helmets, along with banners, traffic cones, flashing lights, etc, etc ....

[Johnnytheboy]

petrolsniffer said:

RS200 man said:

Oh yes, and the man who has just been 'nicked' in the accompanying shot (+ Sierra Cosworth) was Mark Deans, who was Assistant Competitions Manager at the time

[mcford]

catso said:

Indeed but unless the pic was taken mid wiper sweep, I feel the wiper parking up the middle of the screen is a bit 'barry boy'.

A wiper parking vertically is a bit embarrasing for a Police car, as it's a MOT fail.

[g3org3y]

I wonder what the Italian equivalent of the Daily Mail made of this:


I suspect there wasn't one single letter of complaint. Ludicrous, impractical but absolutely cool.

Unfortunately...

[Elroy Blue]

streaky said:

The vast majority of passing drivers will assume that the police force in question has puurchased the vehicle. That's what makes the message wrong, especially in these times of austerity.

Remember - perception is reality.

Streaky

I actually agree with Streaky!!

This car had a massive negative response from the SHIFT officers, for the exact reasons as above.

The ones that trot out for the cameras, never work when it's dark and don't actually arrest anyone love it.

[saaby93]

Elroy Blue said:

streaky said:

The vast majority of passing drivers will assume that the police force in question has puurchased the vehicle. That's what makes the message wrong, especially in these times of austerity.

Remember - perception is reality.

Streaky

I actually agree with Streaky!!

This car had a massive negative response from the SHIFT officers, for the exact reasons as above.

The ones that trot out for the cameras, never work when it's dark and don't actually arrest anyone love it.

AFAIK thats not where they use it. They take it to typical car meets at tescos, sainsburys as the Yoof come over for a chat about the car the police kit and policing.
Or anywhere else similar events
If it' free why not use it where it helps?

[Elroy Blue]

saaby93 said:

Elroy Blue said:

streaky said:

The vast majority of passing drivers will assume that the police force in question has puurchased the vehicle. That's what makes the message wrong, especially in these times of austerity.

Remember - perception is reality.

Streaky

I actually agree with Streaky!!

This car had a massive negative response from the SHIFT officers, for the exact reasons as above.

The ones that trot out for the cameras, never work when it's dark and don't actually arrest anyone love it.

AFAIK thats not where they use it. They take it to typical car meets at tescos, sainsburys as the Yoof come over for a chat about the car the police kit and policing.
Or anywhere else similar events
If it' free why not use it where it helps?

It's being used at the NEC and on the m/way for a few weeks.

[Engineer1]

g3org3y said:

I wonder what the Italian equivalent of the Daily Mail made of this:


I suspect there wasn't one single letter of complaint. Ludicrous, impractical but absolutely cool.

Unfortunately...

At least until picture 2 happened

[DSM2]

saaby93 said:

Elroy Blue said:

streaky said:

The vast majority of passing drivers will assume that the police force in question has puurchased the vehicle. That's what makes the message wrong, especially in these times of austerity.

Remember - perception is reality.

Streaky

I actually agree with Streaky!!

This car had a massive negative response from the SHIFT officers, for the exact reasons as above.

The ones that trot out for the cameras, never work when it's dark and don't actually arrest anyone love it.

AFAIK thats not where they use it. They take it to typical car meets at tescos, sainsburys as the Yoof come over for a chat about the car the police kit and policing.
Or anywhere else similar events
If it' free why not use it where it helps?

Have trawled this thread I am yet to see a valid reason for this sort of 'publicity stunt' which is what it is at best. Whether it costs or not is irrelevant, the exercise pointless.

As far as 'typical car meets' at Tescos etc goes, do the establishment really believe this sort of thing is taken seriously? Really?

[Red Devil]

Knock_knock said:

As a continuation of my last thought, it has been mentioned lately that as part of the planning permission process for a new superstore, Tesco agreed to pay for the construction of a new Police station and associated road improvements etc.

I believe the figure quoted was a £7million station. I imagine that there would be some sort of leaseback arrangement with the force in question, but it would still represent an extremely good deal for the Police (and presumably Tesco!).

In the spirit of austerity and sending the right messages, should this offer, and offers like it, not be accepted?

KK

Edited by Knock_knock on Friday 14th January 13:02

Not when it's a major supermarket chain providing an inducement to get planning permission from the local Council. Providing an 'amenity' is a well-rehearsed tactic. Once permission is granted the Council can't revoke it. The plans then get subtly changed so that what gets built is up to 25% larger than originally planned. To the detriment of local residents whose objections cannot now be heard.

[anonymous-user]

Are you talking about West Bromwich?

In early January program Paragon, a money saving operation implemented in anticipation of the (now confirmed) cuts in budget, merged West Brom with Smethwick Police areas in the West Mids to save money. In the process, 100k was paid to move the comms room from Smethwick the 3 miles to west Brom. At the time, the new Tesco sposored station was planned and agreed but when finished, the new station won't have a comms room. As a result, the room will be moved at a cost of 100k, again. Guess where to? Yep, back to Smethwick.

Also, the new station doesn't have any cells. West Brom, the nick being demolished for the new tesco store was the main station with cells in the area. As a result, the new improvements have reduced prisoner capacity by half in the area, potentially costing taxpayers a fortune in either extra expense to travel to other cells or, more probably, a new facility being built at the cost of the Police. It will also mean a comms room has been moved at a total cost of 200k for a period of 12 months before it comes back to where it was originally.

[streaky]

Given this other perspective (lifted from the closed thread):



I do wonder whether this was a sensible location for publicity photographs.

Streaky