by Dan Bloom

More than 2,000 drivers have been fined in just three weeks since a round-the-clock camera went up in Chatham’s bus station.

The figure is more than a third of the 6,350 £60 fines handed out since the terminal opened in October.

Bus station drivers have now earned Medway Council £120,000 – and 2,000 of them haven’t even paid their fines yet.

Cars are banned from driving through the terminal in Waterfront Way, but sat navs and Google Maps still direct people through it.

There are blue “bike, taxi and local bus only” signs but fine victim Alan Gomm said: “There’s nothing clear and red to say ‘no through road’. I realised what I’d done but it was dangerous to do a U-turn. The safest way was to break the law.”

The furious 79-year-old of The Glebe, Cuxton, has complained to ward councillor Ray Maisey (Con). He is one of 90 drivers a day breaking the rules.

Council regeneration chief Robin Cooper said it was “quite shocking” but insisted they were a “small number” doing it on purpose.

The signs were “clearly marked”, he said, adding: “We had a month long amnesty and wrote to anyone that drove through.

“To put it simply, we would be happy if we never had to issue another fine as that would mean no driver is putting bus users, which include children, at risk. e would ask drivers to think of the safety of the 60,000 pedestrians that use the bus station each week and stop doing this.”

But Nigel Wise for anti-CCTV campaign NoToMob said: “Why would that many people deliberately contravene a restriction knowing they’ll get fined? Clearly they don’t know.”

The £55,000 camera began issuing tickets on April 16 and by last Wednesday9 2,238 people had been fined. It detects car numberplates and feeds them through a database.

Previously fines were issued by the council’s CCTV cars, which spent 30 hours a week at the bus station.

Medway Council released the figures after a request by the Messenger.

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