TRAFFIC cameras on one 50 metre stretch of bus lane have raked in a staggering £1.3m in fines in just eight months - accounting for more than half the total amount of Newcastle city centre bus lane fines.

The cameras on John Dobson Street in Newcastle have caught 64,000 motorists driving down the controversial bus lane.

That amounts to more than half of the £2.4 million total raised from bus lane cameras throughout the city centre.

Many drivers who have been fined claim the signs, which were introduced in February this year, were confusing.

Newcastle City Council have also admitted that some drivers were fined, even though they wouldn't have been able to see unlit warning signs because it was too dark.

The council says this was down to a change in government rules about lighting up traffic signs and will now have to refund £117,500 to 5,100 drivers.

More fines have also been successfully appealed at tribunal due to further issues about the signs.

An adjudicator from the Traffic Penalty Tribunal says some warning signs for north-bound bus lane were "inadequate" because there was just too much information on them for drivers to take in.

The traffic tribunal said it had dealt with 88 cases from the two John Dobson Street cameras, upholding 72 of them.

A spokesperson for Newcastle City Council said: "Adjudicators' decisions relate only to the case in which they are made and do not apply to other cases, which have their own individual circumstances.

"We are currently reviewing all adjudicators' decisions to see if we need to take any further action.

"During this review we found that we issued 5,100 penalty charge notices during hours of darkness between February 23 and April 22 when the bus gate signs were not lit up.

"This happened because we were working to new Department for Transport regulations, which do not require lighting but which came into force later than we had anticipated.

"We know which penalty charge notices are affected by this and we will contact all drivers concerned to make a refund so there is no need for them to contact us.

"We are sorry for this and will seek to ensure that it does not happen again."

Student Bethaney Clegg, 21, was fined after being caught on camera while on her way to work in Gateshead.

The former dental nurse, from Byker, Newcastle, said: "I am happy that people are starting to realise how ridiculous the John Dobson Street camera is.

"I got fined when the cameras first went up. I didn't notice any signs or anything.

"I have been driving around that route at least a few times a week for the past two and a half years and never had a problem.

"I was angry because they just seemed to change it without any notice.

"I was so shocked when that fine came through my door - I wasn't expecting it to say the least.

"I was angry, I have never felt anything like that in my life.

"I complained about it on Facebook and people just told me to go to Specsavers, but I knew that I couldn't have been the only one to get snared by that camera.

"When I went online to pay the £30 fine I got the option to watch the footage of my car turning into the bus lane.

"There were about eight people that went the same way as me and they all got fines too.

"It is disgraceful that the council have made so much money off of people who have just been going to work or whatever. It is robbery."