A MOTORIST who took Bradford Council to a tribunal over a bus lane fine has set up a website to encourage others to dispute their penalties.

Graeme Raisbeck has been involved in a lengthy battle with the authority since he was caught by an enforcement camera on Huddersfield Road, Low Moor, last August.

Mr Raisbeck was fined £30 for entering the bus lane - which runs towards Low Moor from Odsal fire station - before turning left into Netherlands Avenue.

He claimed the positioning of the bus lane left little room to make a safe turning, leading him to label it as dangerous.

Now, Mr Raisbeck has stumped up £60 after the tribunal ruled in the Council's favour.

But the systems engineer said it was revealed at the tribunal that the authority may not have fully followed Government directives on bus lane enforcement.

He added: "They said they had to go against Government directives to fit the bus lane in, otherwise it wouldn't have fit in the space."

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However, the authority said in response that it did not believe there were any problems with its enforcement of bus lanes.

Paul Ratcliffe, Bradford Council's parking services co-ordinator, said: "We have no concerns about the operation of any of our bus lane cameras."

Mr Raisbeck has now set up www.bradfordbuslanes.org.uk and wants to hear from other drivers who have been caught by the camera on Huddersfield Road. The website goes live today.

"Each person it [the Council] fines at Netherlands Avenue will be invited to join the campaign.

"Each person will be advised to go to tribunal face-to-face, as is their right. It took five months for me to get a meeting," he said.

"We are putting a lot of effort, research and thought into the campaign. I hope it's worth it."

He added that he had no criminal convictions and had held a clean licence for 29 years.

Mr Raisbeck has received statistics from the Council which show the number of motorists caught by the Huddersfield Road camera on a weekly basis, between August 3 last year and February 21 this year.

In the ten weeks before the Council received Mr Raisbeck's challenge against his fine, the authority fined on average 84.5 motorists a week. In the nine weeks after receiving Mr Raisbeck's challenge, the number dropped to 13.3 per week.

The figures rose dramatically from December 14 onwards, with a peak of 213 motorists caught between December 21 and 27 last year.