'Perverse' councils rake in millions by enforcing illegal traffic and parking restrictions

Councils have made hundreds of thousands of pounds by enforcing unlawful traffic and parking restrictions, it has emerged.

Fines are said to have been levied despite incorrect road markings and on parking bays which are too small.

The Department of Transport said it expected councils to "seriously consider" repayment of illegal fines.

But a spokesman for London councils questioned whether returning the cash was the best use of public money.

A north London councillor has highlighted his authority's past activities, which he described as "perverse".

Haringey Labour councillor Alan Stanton tackled the council over 3,746 penalty charge notices issued for a box junction which did not meet Department for Transport regulations.

The tickets issued between November 2005 and March 2006 - before the mistake was picked up - were unenforcable and Councillor Stanton has called for money to be paid back.

He says roughly 1,700 late-payers had their fines cancelled, leaving those who had already paid penalised. "The outcome was perverse," said Councillor Stanton. "It means the council kept the money from roughly 2,000 people who paid up promptly."

Nick Lester, from London Councils, which represents authorities in the capital, argued that handing the cash back was not necessarily in the public interest.

He said: "Where there's only a technical error, a small issue, where no-one was genuinely misled, the council can take the view, is it really a good use of public money to repay the penalty?”