OUTRAGED campaigners are demanding an apology after they were told they were committing a crime by taking photos in Worthing town centre.

Now they have posted video footage on the internet to draw attention to Saturday June 28'ss (JUNE 28) incident, which involved three of the borough's new 'burgundy' town wardens.

Dave Phillips from the long-running local newsletter The Porkbolter explained that a small group of supporters had been taking part in a tongue-in-cheek 'celebration' of the 12th anniversary of Worthing's CCTV cameras.

He said: "We started at the station and had worked our way into town, stopping off at various cameras and making a brief comment or two through a megaphone, while also pointing our own little cameras back at the surveillance cameras.

"It was all very light-hearted and easy-going until we reached Holder's Corner in Montague Street and these wardens came storming over to tell us we weren't allowed to take photos in a public place!

"They wouldn't tell us what law this was supposed to be under and they wouldn't give us their names - we also noticed they did not have any visible identification, in the way that police do.

"None of us could believe what was happening and one of our group was so outraged he picked up the megaphone and started telling all the shoppers around what was going on. They didn't like that and one of the wardens actually grabbed the megaphone and tried to pull it away from him - we've got all that on video."

Mr Phillips explained that with a crowd rapidly gathering to find out what all the commotion was about, and expressing their support for the photographers, the wardens had finally retreated and disappeared back into their offices in Liverpool Gardens.

He added: "It took a while afterwards for the seriousness of all this to sink in. How can it be against the law to take photographs in Worthing town centre? Where would that leave our tourism industry or our local media, let alone everyone else's basic freedoms?"

"There are so many questions that this incident raises. What sort of powers do these new wardens have, for a start? And what sort of qualifications or legal training? Are they supposed to use physical force?

"If they are trying to use powers they don't have in order to enforce a law that doesn't exist, then what is the council going to do about it?
Will it be taking disciplinary action against those involved?

"We are demanding at the very least a public apology and a clear statement that it is perfectly legal to take photographs in public places in Worthing. Otherwise we are going to look at ways of taking this further."

Photographs have been posted at:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/99953214@N00/

More info:  http://www.eco-action.org/porkbolter

A better quality version of the video can be obtained from  worthing@no2id.net