THE Department of Regional Development has collected more than £900,000 in penalty fines in four months from drivers seen entering designated bus lanes in Belfast.
More than 26,000 fines were issued to motorists between June and the end of October, raising a total of £919,770 for the department.
The numbers of drivers caught by the city’s 29 cameras and mobile detection vehicles varies hugely depending on location.
More than 11,000 drivers fined were seen entering the bus lane on Donegall Square East, at the side of Belfast City Hall, while just two motorists were hit with a penalty fare on Chichester Street and three on the Whitewell Road.
The Donegall Square East bus lane is in operation six days a week from 7am to 7pm.
In August alone, almost 3,700 motorists were fined in Donegall Square East, an average of more than ten drivers every hour.
The statistics were released in relation to an Assembly question from SDLP North Belfast MLA Alban Maginness, who said he believed many drivers were "unintentionally violating the rules."
He said: "I don’t believe that thousands of people have deliberately driven into the bus lane in Donegall Square East."
"Bus lanes are a good idea. Most people support them but there is better notification given to people using the bus lane in certain areas, because I can’t believe people are deliberately flouting the rules to the extent that the figures suggest."
Mr Maginness added: "There is an element of unfairness. I don’t think the department have set out to make this a money making exercise but it is becoming one. It shouldn’t be seen as an alternative source of funding by the department."
Any driver caught in a bus lane is liable to a £90 fine, reduced to £45 fine if paid within a fortnight.
Around 700 drivers had fines wiped in the first weeks of the scheme due to a timing fault on detection cameras.
