Road that cost drivers £2.5m fines in a year

About £1.6 million of the penalties were handed out for moving traffic offences captured by CCTV in Southampton Row, Bloomsbury.

About £612,000 of the fines were issued to drivers who strayed into bus lanes and about £234,000 were for illegal parking.

Parking campaigners today attacked Camden council for its enforcement policy. Barrie Segal, founder of Appealnow.com, said: "I believe the cameras are being used as a shoot-first-ask-questions-later enforcement, which I think is illegal.

"The guidance to local authorities is that CCTV cameras should only be used where it's inappropriate for parking attendants to patrol."

Camden issued a total of £9.2million of fines to drivers from almost 140,000 tickets last year. Almost a third of these were as a result of about 130 fixed cameras - which are also used to monitor criminal activity - and camera cars.

At least seven cameras in Kentish Town Road operated by Camden hit motorists with fines of more than £1 million.

Shopkeepers in the street said they were appalled at the total. They have long complained their trade has been suffering because the cameras put off customers.

Ashley Lambert, manager of Discount Furniture, said the store could end up closing.

"We get tickets all the time and our customers get tickets all the time," he said. "If business keeps going down we won't be here - and we have been here for 15 years." Another trader said: "Local government has sacrificed local businesses for extra finance."

A Camden spokesman said: "We enforce parking rules to make the roads safer, to protect scarce parking spaces for those who have a right to use them and to reduce congestion and keep traffic flowing.

"Kentish Town Road is very narrow and busy. We need to provide space for businesses to load without adding to congestion and this restricts the amount of parking. We introduced pay-and-display parking where we could."

HOW I GOT CAUGHT, by Ruth Bloomfield

When I received a £120 parking fine from Camden council it took me by surprise.

It turned out my crime had been to stop off at a Kentish Town Road deli one evening after work.

I had pulled over into a pay-and-display bay and got out to feed the machine, but discovered parking there was banned during the rush hours, so got back in my car and drove off.

The fine came with photos showing my car in the bay during controlled hours, with me in the background beside the pay machine.

I paid the fine because although mine was a technical and brief breach, there is no leeway with policing by CCTV - a camera has no common sense.