Britain’s busiest traffic camera is catching a driver every two minutes in Brighton, as a Tory councillor criticised the city’s Green administration for “cashing in on confusion”.

Brighton and Hove City Council has been accused of treating drivers like “cash cows” after experimental “bus gates” in the Valley Gardens area of the city caught out 310 people every day.

The four traffic cameras – at Marlborough Place, St George’s Place, St Peter’s Place and York Place – were installed in June last year by the then-Labour administration to monitor traffic on the roads.

The bus gates – which force normal traffic to turn left off the major road, only letting buses, taxis and bicycles to carry straight ahead – captured 9,618 motorists in the last month alone, raking in thousands of pounds worth of fines.

More than half of the £60 penalty charge notice (PCN) fines issued in October were linked to just one of the cameras.

‘Ripping off the public’

Robert Nemeth, a Conservative councillor, said his “jaw dropped” when he found out about the “extraordinary number of fines” that were being imposed on local people.

He said that if traffic was busy for 10 hours a day then at peak times the council was fining 30 drivers an hour or one every two minutes.

Speaking at the Green-led council’s environment, transport and sustainability committee meeting on Wednesday where the controversial bus gates were made permanent, Cllr Nemeth said: “The fact that one person is being fined every two minutes at these bus gates is extraordinary.

“It is clearly being used as a revenue-raising measure by stealth, which sees the council cashing in on confusion and hurting the city’s economy.”

Cllr Nemeth told The Telegraph that the council were “ripping off the public” and should be made to “return the huge sums that have been extorted”.

‘Money hungry’

He said that some motorists who were confused by the new rules were being fined after driving on the unauthorised roads – despite some attempting to reverse once they had realised their mistake.

He accused Labour and the Greens of making the traffic order permanent despite the issues because of their desire to create a “car-free city centre”.

Local people expressed their anger at the traffic cameras in the report, which was shown to the committee ahead of their meeting.

One objection labelled the bus lanes “completely unclear and unnecessary”, while another accused the council of being “money hungry”.

A camera previously dubbed Britain’s busiest in Southampton caught 51,049 motorists driving over the speed limit between 2015 and 2017, triggering more than 320 times a week at its peak. But Brighton’s bus gate caught more than 2,170 a week.

Brighton and Hove City Council has been contacted for comment.