Someone’s got a new toy.
And yet… the more Wansteadium thinks about the new look for these Redbridge vehicles, the more it feels a bit unnecessary.
The blue and yellow checkerboard marking, known as the Battenburg livery, was developed in the 1990s to make police cars, ambulances and fire engines uniformly recognisable across the country. It’s already been somewhat co-opted by private ambulances, highway management and private security.
Redbridge Neighbourhood Enforcement is responsible for dealing with:
- fly-tipping
- graffiti
- littering
- overgrown front gardens
- illegal advertising
- drinking in places where it’s forbidden by a public spaces protection order
- unlicensed street trading
- some traffic violations including blocking the highway
- other offences – there’s a full list here
But does any of that require looking like an emergency vehicle?