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Cabbie: Alan Fleming
Belsize Road
Boswell Street
Haverstock Hill
 King's Cross bus lane
Junction of Theobald's Road and Southampton Row
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Cabbies' ticket danger spots
Campaigners reveal roads where they claim cameras unfairly dish out fines
CAB driver has drawn up a catalogue of his most-hated penalty hotspots – and top of his hit-list is the camera that made £130 an hour over two months.
Alan Fleming, 67, chairman of the 1,000-strong London Cab Drivers Club, claims Camden is the worst London borough to drive in. He said: “It’s like being in the old Soviet Union. It’s Big Brother.”
Mr Fleming, who lives in Agamemnon Road, West Hampstead, was responsible for organising the 300-strong cabbies’ protest over parking policies which saw roads around the Town Hall jammed for hours in April.
His top five spots where he says drivers are unfairly fined when caught on camera breaking road rules are:
• Junction of Belsize Road and Kilburn High Road, Kilburn. This camera netted the council £197,850 – or £130 an hour – between February 27 and the end of April. Mr Fleming said: “It is for a temporary no-right-turn, but the sign saying this is only a couple of feet up from the pavement. Nearly 4,000 people getting caught in two months shows it has not been signed properly.”
• Junction of Theobalds Road and Southampton Row, Bloomsbury. This is the spot where the council and Transport for London (TfL) have placed 11 cameras. Mr Fleming said: “It is Big Brother.”
• Enforced left turn in Boswell Street, Bloomsbury. Mr Fleming says drivers attempting a U-turn – a legal manoeuvre unless otherwise stated – are ticketed. He added: “A U-turn isn’t illegal unless there is a sign saying so. There should be sign if that’s the case.”
• Haverstock Hill, Hampstead. This is the camera that raised half-a- million pounds for Camden last year. Drivers pull into the bus lane to turn left into Belsize Lane and are given a ticket. Mr Fleming said: “That is a lot of money for one camera.”
• Extended bus lane outside King’s Cross Tube station leading to York Way. Mr Fleming said: “We’re in danger of being smashed into by buses because we need to turn into York Way to get into the station. When we asked TfL to shorten the lane so it wouldn’t be dangerous we were told it wasn’t dangerous.”
Mr Fleming, who has described the council’s parking policies as a “money game”, has called for better signs warning motorists of road restrictions.
Last year the council made £42.9 million in parking fines, but by April it was yet to spend £21.2 million of that total. It is obliged to re-invest the money made from motorists on road improvements.
Mr Fleming, having gone into battle over night-time penalties with his April demo, is now concentrating his campaign on daytime fines.
Tory councillor Mike Greene, Camden’s parking and traffic fines chief, says he is willing to meet Mr Fleming.
But he warned: “It is difficult to defend the motorists’ argument: ‘We don’t want cameras because we want to get away with things’.
“I don’t want to see police time wasted on traffic misdemeanours when a camera could deal with it.”
Cllr Greene added: “I would like to see more cameras used for community safety, although I accept they are also used for traffic.” |
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