Edinburgh's £600k on bus lane cameras 21 | 12 | 2010

JUST WHEN you thought Edinburgh City Council couldn't come up with another hairbrain idea after the shambles of the trams, it has announced it plans to spend more than £600,000 on new cameras to catch drivers illegally using the Capital's bus lanes.

But perhaps what's more alarming is that similar schemes are already being considered in Glasgow and Aberdeen, where enforcement of bus lanes with cameras is projected to raise roughly £90,000 a year in fines.

The five cameras In Edinburgh — yes, just five cameras — will be be rotated between 10 locations in Edinburgh when they go on-stream next year. The cameras will be operated by the council's parking contractor, TSL Services Ltd, and it's suspected thousands of fines will have to be issued to pay for the scheme.

Not surprisingly, motoring organisations have spoken out against the plan; but their stance has been further supported by a number of city councillors.

"I would rather see the money spent on vital services for the vulnerable and young people," Cllr Angela Blacklock, Labour representative for Leith Walk, said, "which the new budget proposals hit the hardest.
"If buses are slower, it discourages people from taking public transport. But we would be better to spend the money on people, not cameras."

And cross-party support came from Tory Jason Rust. The councillor for Colinton/Fairmilehead said: "Misuse of bus lanes is an annoyance for drivers and impedes the flow of traffic, but that does seem to be a large sum."

While funding for the project is to be paid for with a loan taken out against future revenues from the scheme, and will not affect the city's Capital Investment programme, the initial capital cost is said to be around £240,000.

That's bad enough; but what's staggering is the council has budgeted £120,000 for each of the following three years to run the cameras.

Edinburgh officials have suggested the cost of the contract could be repaid in five years, but it would appear that once again the transport bosses have got their sums mixed up.

Once the capital investment has been paid for, the city would need to hand out 4000 £30 fines each year to break even; the problem is that this year, up until December 17, police handed out just 602 fines to drivers for Edinburgh bus lane infringements.

But unrepentant, Cllr Gordon Mackenzie, convener of the council's transport committee, is adamant he and his council cronies are spending the public's money wisely.

"Having invested heavily in improving the quality and reliability of our award-winning bus service, it is frustrating that a minority of drivers are flouting the law and causing unnecessary delays, hence these measures," he stated.

Now we at Scotcars would certainly not advocate driving in bus lanes, but we were rather stunned to learn figures supplied by Edinburgh council suggests that during afternoon peak times, 80% of buses suffer delays of between one and three minutes due to drivers blocking bus lanes.

The cost of £600,000 does appear to be hugely excessive and another waste of Edinburgh taxpayers' cash. As I said, we certainly don't advocate driving in bus lanes, but surely there must be a cheaper alternative to policing the bus lanes?

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Jim McGill