School run road that’s raked in £2.6m of fines
A COUNCIL has made £2.6million by fining motorists, including scores of parents, unknowingly driving through a road closure on the school run.
Motorists have accused officials of entrapment after they issued more than 40,000 tickets in six months for violations of an ‘unclear’ new traffic system on the suburban crescent.
Kingston Council has earned a fortune from the penalties – worth £130 a time – since it introduced the trial at Surbiton High School in South-West London in November to ‘improve safety for cyclists and pedestrians’.
A small section of road outside is closed off to the majority of traffic. But parents and teachers say officials have failed to provide adequate signage or spell out the new rules properly.
Only buses and bikes are allowed to travel southbound, while drivers who live on the right side or use a sixth form car park must register their number plates for access northbound. Anyone else who drives through it will be slapped with a charge, with 8,000 affected in the first week alone.
Claire Geraghty, who has two daughters at the £5,000-a-term independent school, called the closure ‘absolutely appalling’.
The 48-year-old said: ‘I’m quite an observant and conscious driver and I got two tickets in one week. I’d gone through it because there hadn’t been a sign, or if there was it was pretty subtle. Absolutely everyone I know has had tickets. One of my friends had four. ‘It’s a money-making venture. I think they thought they would just find a bunch of middle-class parents dropping their children off at school who would pay up. I don’t understand what it achieves there.’ The fines are initially charged at £130, which is reduced to £65 if paid within 14 days. Amanda Maxwell, 55, who was dropping off her daughter at school, said she initially appealed her penalty but decided to pay up after receiving a letter from the council.
‘The wording was just so threatening,’ she said. ‘I got caught in both directions. So did my neighbours, so did my best friend and so did my daughter. It’s absolutely renowned for the number of people it caught. I’m so angry about it because it was so deceptive.
‘After there were a lot of com- plaints they put up more signposting, so that was tantamount recognition that it wasn’t clearly signposted. Every time I see that road it makes me furious.’
Ann Haydon, the principal of Surbiton High School – once attended by former education secretary Nicky Morgan – confirmed several of her staff had also been ticketed when the trial began.
Kingston Council denied the closure is a money-making scheme, pointing out that most of its fines issued had been upheld by the parking adjudicator on appeal. A spokesman said: ‘The signage meets the requirements set out by the Department for Transport.
‘In addition, the council has installed a number of non-mandatory signs to give road users advanced warning on their approach to the closure. Despite sending out 5,500 warning notices prior to giving out fines, writing to residents and the school in the area of the closure, we have had a high number of road users who have breached the restrictions.’