TRANSPORT bosses at City of York Council have set aside £387,000 from motorists caught on camera using Coppergate, in case they have to provide refunds.

Liberal Democrat councillor Andrew Waller, who discovered the figure, claims the authority will have to offer refunds if it fails to overturn a ruling that it had no power to issue the fines.

The council should finally hear shortly whether it has succeeded in that challenge.

An adjudicator from the Traffic Penalty Tribunal has been considering the issue since last spring and a tribunal spokesman said yesterday that he wished to apologise for the delay in issuing his decision, which resulted from him suffering a close family bereavement. He added that it was hoped the decision should be finalised by next week.

A council spokeswoman said all income from Lendal Bridge and Coppergate fines was set aside in last year's accounts, and the £387,000 in income from Coppergate would remain in the reserve until the legal process was completed.

The tribunal has no legal powers to direct authorities to refund motorists but Cllr Waller said a precedent had already been set with refunds of motorists fined for crossing Lendal Bridge. The council originally agreed to refund drivers who applied for a refund and recently decided to write to all such motorists to invite them to apply.

The original adjudicator, Stephen Knapp, said last February that neither of the schemes banning cars from Coppergate and Lendal Bridge could be "sensibly" described as bus lanes, meaning the authority had no power to issue a penalty charge notice.

He said the signing at either end of Coppergate was also not adequate to reasonably alert the driver to the terms of the restriction and said the signs were poorly located.

A tribunal spokesman said last May that if the reviewing adjudicator upheld Mr Knapp's decision, the council would have to accept the ruling unless it decided to apply to the High Court for a judicial review - as it was entitled to do.

*The challenge and the fines set aside only relate to the period when automatic number plate recognition cameras were used to catch drivers in Coppergate, not the whole time there have been restrictions on motorists, which remain in place and can still be enforced by police.