DRIVERS straying into Manchester's bus lanes have generated nearly £500,000 in fines in just 12 months.

A total of 28,000 motorists have been caught illegally using the lanes during peak periods.

Roadside cameras on one road alone - Wilmslow Road in south Manchester - accounted for 40 per cent of the fines and collected nearly £200,000.

The money raised from the £60 fines will be channelled back into improving transport.

And the cash bonanza could have been even greater after it emerged 5,000 bus lane cheats escaped fines because the paperwork wasn't sent out quickly enough. Motorists' campaigners said many drivers find it infuriating to be stuck in traffic jams alongside an empty bus lane.

Sean Corker, from Manchester Against Road Tolls, said: "I can understand the frustration of drivers who are sat in traffic jams when there are empty lanes beside them.

"It is always assumed that bus lanes will solve congestion. But before they are set up there should be research to show how many people they will carry.

"If they don't carry more passengers than ordinary traffic, then they shouldn't be there because they just cause congestion."

Manchester council set up a network of roadside cameras to ensure drivers did not stray into the lanes which are designated for buses, taxis and cyclists. A car equipped with hi-tech camera equipment also carried out daily monitoring of different routes.

A total of 12 fixed CCTV cameras, monitored by traffic controllers, were erected on major city routes last year.

In the first year of the scheme, £483,000 was raised through fines. The cash is ring-fenced, meaning it can only be used on highway improvements, bus and cycle schemes, and enforcement costs.

But the council admitted that `technical teething problems' meant they missing out on more than £300,000 in fixed penalty payments.

Problems

Of the drivers caught, 13,000 were in the camera-controlled bus lanes on Wilmslow Road. By law, all fines must be sent out within 28 days of the offence, but the council said that in 5,000 cases, this didn't happen.

A town hall official said: "In the very early days there were some technical teething problems with the equipment, which meant that 5,000 bus lane offences which were caught on cameras across the city could not be processed in time.

"The mistake would simply have been compounded by issuing the penalty notices beyond the legal time limit and so the tickets were voided."

Manchester University student Rachael Walsh did receive a ticket when she used the bus lane. But the 20-year-old from Fallowfield had her fine cancelled because of a different kind of blunder.

She said: "I wasn't sent a £60 fine, I just got a final notice to say I had to pay £90 for using bus lanes on Wilmslow Road.

"I paid it but a few weeks later I got the money back. I did use the bus lane, but because I wasn't sent out the original £60 fine I didn't have to pay it. The council said they sent out a lot of fines like that by mistake."

According to figures obtained under Freedom of Information laws, a driver is caught every 38 minutes on average illegally using the bus lanes on Wilmslow Road.

And even without the cash from the motorists whose fines weren't sent out in time, the council raked in £193,080 from Wilmslow Road bus lane cheats between the beginning of October 2006 and the end of September this year. Drivers are handed a £60 fixed penalty notice for using bus lanes but pay only a £30 fine if they cough up within 14 days.

If the fine is not paid within 28 days it is increased to £90.

According to the council, none of the tickets that fell outside the 28 day timescale were actually issued to motorists.

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