Fines set to total £1 million a year from new ANPR cameras outside council headquarters

Fines could total up to £1million from a new traffic enforcement camera right outside the council’s headquarters in Northampton.

West Northants Council (WNC) recently installed an automatic number plate recognition camera (ANPR) outside of its Angel Square offices ‘to help reduce town centre traffic congestion’. Fines from the cameras will go to council funds.

The camera catches any motorist who enters and stays in the yellow hatched box at the junction of St John’s Street and Victoria Gardens, which the council says happens ‘regularly’.

The camera was introduced following a consultation by WNC which resulted in 141 responses from a population of 420,000 people.

Since its inception on February 1 and February 17, the ANPR camera has caught 600 drivers stopped inside the box.

In the first six months of the camera going live, motorists are being given a first written warning by WNC. Further offences will see drivers issued a penalty charge notice (PCN) of £70, reduced to £35 if paid within the first 21 days.

If the offences continue at a rate of 600 every two weeks, then WNC can expect to receive £42,000 a fortnight, or £1.1million a year if everyone paid the maximum £70 fine.

If the rate continues at 600 every two weeks and everyone paid the minimum fine of £35, WNC can expect to get £550k.

The council said: “No PCNs have yet been issued. Any money from future PCNs is ring fenced and will be put back in to funding highways services and projects under the legislation.”

Bridge Street is currently closed off to traffic due to the massive fire at the former Balloon Bar and Fat Cats Cafe, meaning thousands more motorists are currently using St John’s Street as a diversion to get into town, adding a huge increase in traffic via one lane turning left at the Victoria Promenade traffic lights.

It is believed Bridge Street will only reopen once the site is demolished and made safe – and there is no time scale on that as of yet.

The council was asked by this newspaper: Is it fair to punish drivers while Bridge Street is currently closed? One lane turning left up Victoria Promenade is not big enough for hundreds of cars. What's the council's view?

Councillor Phil Larratt, cabinet member for environment, transport, highways and waste, said: “Contrary to recent reports and speculation, these new measures aren’t about ‘punishing’ drivers at all but helping them by trying to ease congestion and keep the traffic flowing in our town.

"We know some people have expressed unhappiness about them, but many more also support what we are doing and we have received requests to look at introducing these measures in other areas of West Northamptonshire.

"We want people to know where this enforcement is taking place and to be aware of the rules of the road in these areas so that they don’t fall foul of the law and help us to keep traffic moving.”

On 16 February, WNC also introduced enforcement at two other sites with the following number of warnings currently being issued:

Right turns are not allowed from Fishponds Road into Great Billing Way – 187 warning notices have been issued already.

Hermitage Way is a bus only route which is routinely used by other motorists – 36 warning notices have been issued.