MORE motorists who flout the rules of the road must face fines, a meeting has heard.

Senior North Yorkshire County councillors have voiced their determination to target drivers who ignore traffic regulations and said the authority should consider using cameras in a similar way to how the police crack down on speeding.

The authority’s Thirsk and Malton constituency committee heard while motorists driving through prohibited areas was an issue across the county, it was hampering an 18-month trial to cut traffic at one of the county’s most notorious congestion hotspots.

Norton Councillor Keane Duncan told members changes needed to be made to the scheme to ban 7.5-tonne vehicles at the Malton and Norton level crossing to achieve any significant improvement.

Councillor Lindsay Burr, who represents Malton, added the 51 HGVs being investigated for breaching the restriction were just a fraction of the lorries adding to the traffic misery.

She said residents were becoming frustrated that the ban was not being monitored.

Executive member Councillor Janet Sanderson suggested the authority could consider taking action in a similar fashion to the way North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Julia Mulligan has done with mobile speed camera vans.

Cllr Sanderson said: “Enforcement all over North Yorkshire is really difficult. "We have all these rules and regulations, but enforcement is terribly difficult.

“I want to compare it to the police’s successful speed enforcement with their cameras.

"Can we not put a camera up like Mrs Mulligan does and get a bit more success and few more fines like she does?”

Highways officer Richard Marr said cameras had been considered too expensive ahead of the Malton trial scheme, but still could form part of a permanent solution at the site.

The authority’s deputy leader, Councillor Gareth Dadd said he would love cameras at the narrow entrances to Thirsk town centre to catch HGVs flouting restrictions, but said he believed that would lead to “too intrusive a society”.

Cllr Dadd said: “In terms of an experiment for the level crossing, I can’t think why the cost of a camera would be prohibitive. Word would soon get out if you had a camera there and banned a dozen HGVs.”

Mr Marr said the most costly part of using a camera for enforcement would be employing someone to wade through the hours of footage to spot offenders.