Home Archive Mrs Palm appeals for help with ‘intrusive’ CCTV condition

Mrs Palm appeals for help with ‘intrusive’ CCTV condition

The owners of Mrs Palm, the licensed store in Truro, Cornwall, are appealing for help and advice from other licensed store owners in combating the latest condition Cornwall Council is attempting to impose upon the business.

The council is now saying that Mrs Palm is required to install ‘very intrusive’ CCTV to record and retain for not less than 31 days recognisable facial features of all persons attempting to enter the shop, leaving the shop and also of persons in the shop. The proprietors believe this could be an attempt to put them at risk of retrospective search for any possible offence without any safeguards which other legislation provides if evidence is to be provided against a defendant.

Mrs Palm co-owner Braxton Reynolds is preparing an appeal against the condition and would welcome feedback from the industry: “Our customers are particularly concerned that they are using a shop that is extremely discreet but obviously there are serious implications for the whole industry about this,” he said. “In particular we need to draw attention to the very real difference between a shop opening for trade during normal daylight hours with customers coming in and going out in small numbers at any time compared to a sex cinema where, at the end of every performance, patrons may leave en masse and sexual entertainment venues where alcohol is served at tables and patrons congregate both in the entrance vestibules and the street outside, leaving en masse when the club closes.”

Braxton Reynolds can be contacted on 01392 431222 or email [email protected]