Russian roulette of bus lanes
COUNCIL SAYS ONLY SOME OF THE CITY’S CAMERAS WILL TRAP DRIVERS
THOUSANDS of people have been stung by bus lane cameras in Newcastle city centre since the start of the year – despite THREE of them not snaring drivers.
A total of 8,959 penalty charges have been issued to motorists who drove through cameras on John Dobson Street in 2017.
As of March 10, 5,961 drivers had coughed up the money for the fine – raising £178,830 for cash-strapped Newcastle City Council.
And 2,878 fines have been issued to motorists snapped by the bus lane camera on the Tyne Bridge since the turn of the year.
As of March 10, 1,836 fines had been paid – generating £55,080 in income.
There are three other bus lane cameras in Newcastle city centre, at Westgate Road, Clayton Street West and Neville Street.
But these are currently only being used for monitoring purposes and anyone caught by them will NOT be issued with a fine.
A Newcastle City Council spokesperson said: “We have placed cameras on the bus lanes on Westgate Road, Clayton Street West and at the front of Central Station at Neville Street, which is one of the city’s busiest areas for public transport.
“They are not issuing penalty charge notices as we have been making further improvements to nearby junctions and we are currently reviewing our direction signs on the key routes around the station.
“Once this is all in place, we will continue to monitor movements and make a further decision with regard to the cameras.”
Despite the £233,910 raked in since the turn of the year, the authority insisted the bus lanes are not there as a cash cow.
The spokesperson added: “We would stress that the bus lanes are not there to generate income – they are there to help us manage out network efficiently.
“Nearly half of all our households don’t have access to a car and rely on public transport to get around so it is crucial that our city has a reliable and efficient public transport network.”
Earlier this year, an investigation found Newcastle’s two city centre bus lane cameras were in the top 10 most profitable in the country – with the John Dobson one topping the list.
It was revealed the camera was raking in nearly £6,000 a day.
In total, 62,975 motorists were snared by the camera between October 31, 2016, and February 23 this year, raising a total of £1.5m.
We revealed last year how 5,100 motorists were refunded after signs warning of the camera were not lit up.
The Traffic Penalty Tribunal, which reviews appeals, found that in some cases the signage was “inadequate”.
Newcastle appeared twice in the top 10 worst spots for catching drivers, with the camera on the Tyne Bridge slip coming in sixth on the list.