TV review: Panorama and Watchdog

Authorities around the country are investing in CCTV cameras to keep an eye on drivers with the aim of reaping a new source of cash to keep council tax bills down from fines for traffic offences.

Beleaguered motorists have long believed speed cameras have been sprouting up around the country to increase police force funding rather than to improve road safety.

Now it appears cash-strapped councils hope to use fines for offences of driving in bus lanes and blocking box junctions spotted by surveillance through cameras as a strategy to make up for Government cutbacks in financial support.

Reporter Adam Shaw exposed how increasing numbers of drivers are incurring penalty charges in some areas with no sign that it is doing anything at all to keep traffic flowing.

E-mails obtained through a campaigner's Freedom of Information Act application from Hammersmith and Fulham Council - seen as a model for councils around the country - have even revealed officials congratulating one another on hitting targets for raising income from fines – in one case revealingly boasting "another record for us, well done all."

It emerged the council, which prides itself as a low council tax authority, took in £4.5 million from fines last year and has increased the number of traffic tickets it issues fourfold since 2007.

Soundbites from outraged motorists, some who had been fined several times, accused councils of seeing it as 'big business' and 'robbing us.'

Currently councils outside London can only impose fines on motorists caught using bus lanes, but in London there are a wider range of offences they can act on and indications are authorities outside the capital hope to be able to get those powers as well.

Worryingly Shaw reported on fines being imposed for driving in bus lanes where there are no buses and increases in the levels of fines of up to 404 per cent.

Actor Tom Conti, who helped set up a motorists action group in London after he got fined for stopping on a red route, spoke for many when he said that punishments for offences did not fit the 'crimes' at all.

At one notorious London junction, dubbed the money box, 29,000 have been caught on CCTV stopping in the box generating £2 million in fines for the council, which another e-mail revealed it hoped to further increase revenue from offending motorists by another £5 million and has invested £500,000 to install new cameras which can catch offenders around the clock.

Shaw questioned whether the DVLA should be passing on drivers' details to authorities without checking whether the tickets were valid and put forward some proposals to improve the situation on the roads including warning signs ahead of 'problem' box junctions.

When he took the step of putting up signs at the money box junction warning motorists to obey the regulations or face a fine, Hammersmith and Fulham Council rapidly ordered him to take them down.

Matt Allwright's Rogue Traders show exposing the tricks of cowboy businesses has been eaten up by the consumer rights programme Watchdog recently.

His entertaining hidden camera filming of rogues like last night's roof cleaner and repairer Daz Potts is now split up through the one-hour show hosted by the ever sharp-tongued Anne Robinson, who did a good job last night of putting the boss of sofa specialists CSL, Jason Tyldesley, on the spot over his firm's bizarre excuses for problems with its products.

Watchdog also offered good advice to people buying foreign currency to shop around for the best deal as it emerged that branches of the same exchange bureaus including the Post Office and Thomas Cook offer different rates depending on the level of competition in their local area.

John Corser