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Thursday, December 29, 2011
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FREE INSIDE: YOUR SPECIAL NEW YEAR TELEVISION GUIDE 265 drivers refuse to pay £60 penalty
BAILIFFS CHASE BUS LANE FINES BY ALEX CAMPBELL
alex.campbell@thesentinel.co.uk
HUNDREDS of motorists have been visited by bailiffs after refusing to pay £60 fines for driving in bus lanes. Stoke-on-Trent City Council has issued 8,761 tickets since bringing in an £80,000 spy car to catch motorists driving along 10 bus lanes from October 2010. At least £196,000 has been raked in through fines from the 6,524 drivers who have paid up. But the council is now using bailiffs to recover cash from those who have refused to pay for several months. At least 265 drivers have had their cases handed to bailiffs, who are delivering letters to home addresses threatening further action. New figures show motorists are still using the 20-metre bus lane in Huntbach Street. More than 5,600 of the tickets issued have been on the Hanley road, which leads to car parks behind Marks & Spencer.
Shoppers have accused the council of making easy money on the popular shortcut as many motorists claim not to realise it is a bus lane. The £60 fine is halved if paid within a fortnight of receiving the ticket. Shopper Pam Harrison, aged 61, of Oversley Road, Fegg Hayes, has shunned Hanley since receiving a £60 fine for using Huntbach Street. She said: “The bus lane spy car is just a cash cow for the council. I wouldn’t go to Hanley again unless I had no choice. “There are nicer places with cheaper parking only a little bit further away. “The council is driving people out of Hanley and they are not listening to anyone.” The number of people being caught in Huntbach Street has fallen from an average of 544per-month to 262-per-month since the issue was highlighted by The Sentinel in April. A further 2,105 motorists have been
ADVANCE
A 54-YEAR-OLD man arrested in connection with the stabbing of a farmer is due in court today John Swinson, of Cheadle Road, Alton, was last night charged with grievous bodily harm with intent. He was arrested after police attended a report of an assault in Cheadle Road, Alton, at around 2.15pm on Tuesday. Father-of-three Walter Keeling, aged 62, of Cheadle Road, Alton, was taken by air ambulance to the University Hospital of North Staffordshire with serious injuries where he is still receiving treatment. Swinson was remanded in custody to appear before Fenton Magistrates Court today. See Page 3
£1m fraudster is behind bars A CRIMINAL convicted of a £1 million bank fraud handed himself into police after the Christmas holiday. Neil Wynne went on the run from Stafford Crown Court last Friday. The 44-year-old was sentenced to six years in prison in his absence. Wynne, of Fielding Street, Stoke, has now started his jail term after he surrendered himself at Newcastle Police Station on Tuesday. See Page 7
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fined for using the Stafford Street bus lane in Hanley. The other tickets were issued in Albion Street, Hinde Street, Hulton Street, Old Hall Street and Quadrant Road, in Hanley; Christchurch Street, in Fenton; and Commerce Street and The Strand, in Longton. Abdul Rauf, pictured, chairman of Stoke-on-Trent Hackney Carriage Association, who also operates Stoke-on-Trent Taxis, said: “The enforcement is good because if you allow everybody to use the lanes it will mean they are congested and buses and taxis get stuck in traffic.” The spy car was upgraded in the summer to allow it to automatically send fines to drivers parked illegally in residential streets and outside schools. A council spokesman said the authority has incurred no costs in bringing in bailiffs. He added: “There are 265 cases being processed by bailiffs in connection with outstanding bus lane penalty debts.”
Picture: Mark Scott