Nearly 1,500 fines issued to motorists caught using bus lanes have been “written off” after Bradford Council made a dramatic U-turn on the punishment of drivers who racked up multiple fines.

When the Council first started enforcing bus lane restrictions in Market Street and Bridge Street in September this year, it took a tough stance on those who unwittingly collected a string of penalty charge notices before receiving their first notice.

At the time, when one stunned motorist received 15 fines all at once, John Blackburn, the Council’s assistant director for highways, said: “We cannot let people off just because they have several fines.”

But, in the face of mounting anger and criticism, the Council revised its policy, introducing a new penalty charge appeals process for offending motorists who had accumulated numerous fines.

Since the new appeals process was introduced about a month ago, the Council has cancelled 1,456 penalty charge notices, totalling at least £43,680, after motorists took advantage of the chance to wipe out some of their £30 fines.

Councillor Ghazanfer Khaliq, Bradford Council’s executive member with responsibility for highways, said: “Because of the number of people who expressed concerns, we responded and introduced a new process where people who had received multiple tickets can appeal.

“The figures show that a lot of people have taken advantage of that scheme. We responded to that criticism when it became clear that a lot of people were not aware of this new enforcement and were getting lots of fines all at once.

“It will take away a lot of the criticism that people were making,”

Coun Khaliq said the restrictions had also improved the experience for pedestrians and buses on Market Street by removing the heavy traffic that once existed on the road.

In total, almost 30,000 bus lane penalty charge notices – raking in a potential £900,000 – have been issued in the four months since the Council started enforcement action on Market Street and Bridge Street.

In that period, more than 2,000 individual motorists have either appealed or phoned the Council to request a review.

Aside from the fines wiped out under the new multiple ticket appeals system, the Council has also accepted a further 41 appeals from motorists.

Some of those appeals are likely to have come from police officers, a number of whom were snapped by the spy cameras in the early weeks of operation, leading to fears from West Yorkshire Police Federation that Market Street could become a “no-go area” for routine patrols.

After urgent talks between police and council chiefs, a joint protocol was agreed to ensure that the statutory duties of the police were not compromised by the bus lane enforcement.

Under the agreement, a blanket waiver was put in place to cover all marked police vehicles using bus lanes.