An east London council has raked in almost £100,000 per week by catching out thousands of drivers with a new traffic camera.
Hackney Council banned motorists from turning left at the busy Mare Street junction with Richmond Road in June a bid to reduce pollution.
Drivers complained that they had not been notified of the new rules – which ban turning left between 7am and 10am and 3pm and 7pm from Monday to Friday - before they came into force.
The Hackney Gazette revealed that between June 6 and August 10, 13,819 £65 fines were handed to motorists, meaning the council raked in £898,235. The staggering total amounts to just under £100,000 a week.
One person wrote on Twitter: “That’s an astonishing £898,235 raised for Hackney Council. Maybe if the sign wasn’t so high drivers would see it.”
But, others slated drivers who had not noticed the signs.
One person said: “If those drivers fail to notice a dirty great big sign they have no hope of noticing a child. It's amazing there are that many incompetent drivers in Hackney.”
Another added: “It's the driver's responsibility to notice signs & people, if they fail they get fined. Simples!”
A spokesman for the RAC said the huge number of fines “suggests something is wrong” with the layout of the junction.
Rod Dennis told the Sun: “A driver would have just moments to read all the traffic signs and decide whether they were permitted to turn left.
“A review of all the street signage around the junction would also be very welcome.”
A council spokeswoman told the Standard: “The changes to this junction are part of our pioneering school streets initiative which is improving air quality and making it easier and safer for families to walk and cycle to and from school.
“The notices already meet all Department for Transport requirements, and we have now added additional signage to ensure all drivers comply and help make our children’s school journeys healthier.
“While it is the responsibility of drivers to read this signage and adhere to the road closures, we will of course listen to representations where a driver feels that a fine has been issued unfairly or received multiple fines during a short period.”
Copyright: Evening Standard
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/drivers-vent-their-anger-at-hackney-traffic-camera-that-rakes-in-100k-per-week-a3918521.html
At the CCTV User Group we believe that such installations do little to promote the proportionate use of public space surveillance and might even damage the confidence that the public already has in the use of CCTV to help create safer communities. We are discussing this at a senior level to determine if using CCTV systems (including ANPR / analytics) in this way is compliant with existing codes of practice.