BRADFORD Council has collected more than £10 million in penalty charges notice fines from drivers across the district in the last six years.

A total of 390,678 PCNs were issued with the locations which caught out the most motorists being Bridge Street’s junction with the Broadway and Church Bank in the Bolton Road direction.

Both have attracted complaints to the Telegraph & Argus over the past year with Carol Smedley falling foul of the former the day the Jacob’s Well building was demolished and Anthony Pryce’s car being snapped in the latter - but he overturned the notice on appeal.

A total of 51,323 PCNs were issued for contraventions of the stretch on Bridge Street at its junction with Broadway over the six years, amounting to £1,385,450 in fines, while Church Bank in the Bolton Road direction amassed £1,114,502 from 42,376 errant drivers.

In total, figures on the Bradford Council data hub reveal that the Council received £10,629,589 in payments for the past six financial years but the actual income per year has declined over that time.

In 2015/16, the Council was paid a total of £2,275,838 by 84,528 errant motorists - the most in a single year - in 21 bus lanes but in the financial year that just ended only £1,683,706 was paid by 58,661 drivers in 25 sections of bus lane.

Some of the bus lanes have seen noticeable drops in income with the section on the A650 at the junction with Sleningford Road more than halving in amount collected from £99,000 in 2014/15 to £43,033 in 2019/20 while income on Bolton Road dropped from £279,535 to £161,162 in the same years.

Several sections have remained stable over the years with only gradual declines recorded in the figures. For the stretch of the A650 at Nab Wood, for example, £20,517 was collected in the first year and £19,604 this year.

Other sites, however, illustrate how when restrictions are imposed motorists seemingly take time to adjust their driving - if at all.

The Church Bank stretch towards Bolton Road was introduced in November 2015 and immediately caught out 4,861 motorists in the first month. That eased off to below 1,000 but it has remained steady ever since.

The Leeds Road section was similar with about 500 motorists caught every month since it started in December 2018 - collecting in £23,820 in that first truncated financial year but £143,468 in its first full year last year.

Carol Medley found she was one of 163 motorists who were fined for using the bus lane on Sunday, February 17, when the demolition of the Jacob’s Well office building led to road closure confusion in Bradford city centre - just 16 Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) were issued the Sunday before and 28 PCNs were issued the Sunday after.

Mrs Medley, 56, of Westbury Road, Horton Bank Top, told us last June: “I was not only me who missed it.

“They should have opened the bus lane because there were 14 road closures around the area and it was a Sunday.”

The Council said that the bus lane was signed correctly and they would only have closed it for the day had there been no alternative route for the diversion.

Anthony Bryce, a York businessman, was snapped in the bus lane on Church Bank on a visit to the city to have a curry with a friend in September 2018.

When we featured his case last March Mr Bryce said: “The signage isn’t adequate from Peckover Street into Church Bank. It’s misleading. You can’t go left or turn around.

“It’s a nice little earner for the Council.”

A third case featured in the T&A last May was that of David McLean whose car was pictured twice in a bus lane 14 seconds apart and warned other motorists to appeal if they are in the same situation.

His daughter-in-law strayed into the bus lane outside the Illingworth’s mill on Thornton Road 29 seconds before the end of the banned period at 6.29pm and 31 seconds on Bank Holiday Monday.

He accepted she was in the wrong and paid the fine but a couple of days later he received another letter - this time the car was pictured by a different set of cameras just 14 seconds later at 6.29 and 45 seconds.

He said: “I thought I can’t get prosecuted for the same offence twice.”

A spokesperson for Bradford Council said at the time: “It is possible for a vehicle to be caught on more than one camera in a short space of time if the vehicle remains in the same bus lane for any distance.

“This would automatically generate more than one Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) but in the interests of fairness we would not enforce the payment of more than one, if it is incurred as part of the same incident.”