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#Post#: 46255--------------------------------------------------
Britain's busiest traffic camera in Enfield
By: John U.K. Date: November 19, 2024, 1:17 pm
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From
HTML https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/11/16/britains-worst-traffic-camera-costing-drivers-8m-a-year/
[quote]
Revealed: Britain’s worst traffic camera costing drivers £8m a
year
Local businesses struggle to cope as ‘scared’ customers avoid
the area
Steve Bird
Related Topics
Roads, London, Local councils
16 November 2024 12:57pm GMT
304
Hassan Orhan said delivery drivers were facing a nightmare to
avoid the gate
Hassan Orhan said delivery drivers were facing a nightmare to
avoid the gate Credit: BELINDA JIAO
Fines totalling a record £8 million have been issued to
motorists after a Labour council installed a “cash cow” bus gate
next to an MOT centre last year.
The Bull Lane bus gate, which excludes all motor vehicles except
buses, was set up to promote “active travel” on a north London
industrial estate in August 2023.
Within a year of the lane’s installation, Enfield council has
handed out 63,134 fines to drivers caught by an automatic number
plate recognition (ANPR) camera monitoring the road.
If those fines were paid at the full £130 rate, the council
would have raked in £8,207,420, believed to be the highest sum
potentially raised by a bus gate.
Council benefitting ‘at expense’ of local business
Owners of local businesses affected by the bus gate are calling
for the scheme to be scrapped because customers were “too
scared” to visit the area where vehicles, including articulated
lorries and trucks, are forced to make U-turns to avoid fines.
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Data released by the council under freedom of information laws
show the camera was handing out the equivalent to 172 penalty
charge notices (PCNs) each day, worth up to £22,000.
The council released a list of its most lucrative enforcement
cameras, showing the bus gate issued seven times more tickets
than its second best-performing ANPR camera.
In September 2023, the first full month of data for the bus
gate, it served 18,185 fines, worth £2.3 million if paid in
full, rather than at the reduced £65 rate.
Lucas Stavrinou, of Demitris Motor Repairs, an MOT centre next
to the gate, said he feared the camera was positioned near North
Middlesex University Hospital and the Tottenham football stadium
“to maximise fines”.
“Customers won’t come here because they have already had
numerous fines or don’t want to risk getting another,” he said.
A “drop in trade” has resulted in Mr Stavrinou reducing his
workforce from five to three mechanics.
Hassan Orhan, a manager at Elite Bathrooms and Plumbing, which
has a warehouse on the lane, said delivery drivers faced a
“nightmare”.
He said: “It’s a disaster. Everyone objected because we knew it
would deter customers coming. The council went ahead anyway.
“There’s been no increase in cycling or people walking. It’s a
council cash cow.”
Mehmet Topuz and his wife, Fatima, fear their Queen’s Cafe is on
the “wrong side” of the bus gate and may have to close.
“I have lost more than half my customers. We see cars come down
the road but turn back,” Mr Topuz said.
His wife added: “I’m angry to find the council is making all
this money at our expense.”
Roz Ozbek said her family-run Meridian Supermarket was “losing
up to £300 a day” and the council ignored a petition against the
scheme.
An Enfield council spokesman said the bus gate was introduced to
support a cycle lane, despite there not actually being cycling
infrastructure where the bus gate was installed.
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She insisted the council conducted a “comprehensive engagement
process” and adjusted the scheme following feedback and a safety
audit, adding that only warning letters rather than PCNs were
issued from Aug 29 to Sept 4.
“Segregated cycle lanes are provided a little further north
where there was more space for them to be accommodated,” she
said.
“These traffic calming measures and active travel improvements
were made to provide a quieter, safer, and more pleasant
environment, to improve pedestrian safety and air quality,
reduce traffic and to encourage people to walk, wheel and cycle
for more of their journeys.”
She said “the majority” of PCNs were paid within two weeks at
the lower £65 rate so “our total income over the last year is
significantly lower than has been suggested”.[/quote]
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