Drivers using the Kingsway underpass in Quedgeley are being given one last chance to find an alternative route or face a £60 fine.
The underpass, near the Matalans store, should only be used by buses, licensed taxis and emergency vehicles from the Kingsway estate.
Bright yellow warning no access signs have been put up on the approach to the underpass and directly on the entrances but people are still choosing to ignore them. Gloucestershire County Council installed a CCTV camera in the underpass on Saturday 9th April to catch people who were ignoring the restriction and to deter people from using it in future. For the first two weeks, the council agreed to monitor the situation without issuing fines and in the first seven days alone around 600 people were caught using the underpass illegally.
From next Saturday, 23rd April, £60 fines will be issued to any drivers the camera snaps using the underpass.
Cllr Stan Waddington, cabinet member for environment, said: “I am shocked that so many drivers are still using this underpass despite the clear restrictions. We have worked hard to warn people about the CCTV camera and the fines to deter them from using the route and we’d hoped to see lower figures after the first week. The bottom line is that this underpass is only to be used by authorised vehicles and drivers who ignore that could be putting pedestrians and cyclists in danger and we cannot let that continue. I hope that anyone who is still using the underpass thinks twice before Saturday or a £60 fine will be dropping through their letterboxes.”
Quedgeley Urban Village Limited, the local residents group, is jointly funding the camera with the council in the hope that it will act as a deterrent for people who wrongly use the underpass. Leaflets have been distributed to households on the Kingsway estate, Kingsway Primary School and the shops adjacent to the underpass to warn people of the restriction.
