Bedford Driving Lessons

Londoners have paid £7.3m in fines in one year after being caught out by CCTV cars which “compromise road safety”, a privacy campaign group has claimed. Currently 24 councils use cars mounted with cameras on masts to spot traffic offences, Big Brother Watch said. The group said these patrol cars were being used by councils to “make money, with road safety only an afterthought”. Lambeth Council, which earned the most at £1.68m, in fines, said its income went towards road safety schemes. Big Brother Watch said it obtained these figures from councils under a Freedom of Information request. Councils issued the fines to 161,000 London motorists between April 2009 and March 2010. Across Britain, 31 councils use the patrol cars and 25 of these issued fines worth £8m using these vehicles, the campaign group said. More