Confirmation of when the Fishergate bus lane cameras are going back on has been given.
AdvertisementLancashire County Council is putting in a new junction in Lune Street to make it two-way with Ringway.
This is timed with the enforcement cameras for the Fishergate bus lanes being put back on from Monday 6 November.
Six appeals against the bus lane fines were upheld earlier this year, forcing the county council to abandon the bus lane and issue thousands of refunds.
But the Conservative group since winning control of the county council in May has been exploring how to ease congestion in Preston city centre and bring back the cameras.
Four new large signs are to be added to Fishergate as well as Fox Street, Lune Street and Chapel Street. Butler Street will also see a new large sign added.
The county council was found by the independent inspector during the appeals process to have failed on providing sufficient signage – rendering the bus lane useless.
Read more: Fishergate Bollard is back in its rightful place
On Thursday (14 September) the county council’s cabinet approved the reintroduction of the bus lane.
Cabinet member for highways and transport county councillor Keith Iddon said: “We’ll be switching the cameras back on along Fishergate in November, as well as carrying out advertising and promotion to make people more aware of these bus lanes.
“I gave a commitment that we wouldn’t reintroduce the bus lane enforcement until we could make Lune Street two-way. It’s important to us that we can maximise the benefits of these changes, while reducing the impact on people leaving the city centre.
“There has been a significant increase in the number of drivers ignoring these restrictions since we suspended the camera enforcement, which shows that we need additional measures in place.
“We know that shoppers using the shopping centre car park and through Avenham were particularly affected by these bus lanes. We’ve looked in detail at various measures to reduce some of the issues that we identified during the trial period and improve the overall experience in the city centre for drivers and pedestrians.”
Read more: Guide dog owner tells of Fishergate shared space horror
The bus lane enforcement will operate from 11am to 6pm each day.
What do you think of the county council’s decision? Did you get caught out by the cameras? Let us know in the comments below