Kingston council have been accused of duping parents into paying out £2.6million in fines after introducing an '"unclear" road closure on a busy school run.
The council brought in the trial driving restriction outside Surbiton High School in November which will "improve safety for pedestrians and cyclists".
Traffic is banned from driving between Anglesea Road and Surbiton Road – with the exception of residents, cyclists and buses – and drivers risk being hit with a £130 fine.
The road is marked up with signs but parents taking their children to the £5,000-a-term school said they did not realise parking restrictions had been implemented.
Parent Claire Geraghty called the restrictions “absolutely appalling” and told the MailOnline: “'I'm quite an observant and conscious driver and I got two tickets in one week.
“I'd gone through it because there hadn't been a sign, or if there was it was pretty subtle. Absolutely everyone I know has had tickets. One of my friends had four.
“It's obviously a money-making venture. I think they thought they would just find a bunch of middle-class parents dropping their children off at school who would pay up.
"I don't understand what it achieves there.”
The fine is initially £130 and is reduced to £65 if paid within 14 days. The council revealed that, within the first two weeks of the scheme, more than 8,000 drivers were fined.
The number of fines per week has fallen but council records show that more than 40,000 tickets have been issued in six months.
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Officials denied that the route is not clearly marked out and said regular road users had been informed of the restrictions from June onwards.
The council website says: “The signs installed meet the requirements set out by the Department for Transport (DfT). One sign was repositioned during the warning notice period to make the restrictions even clearer.
“We have also installed a number of non-mandatory signs to give road users advanced warning on their approach to the restriction.”
But local parent Amanda Maxwell, who also has children at the school, said she was caught twice by the restriction and added: “It's absolutely renowned for the number of people it caught. I'm so angry about it because it was so deceptive.
“After there were a lot of complaints they put up more signposting, so that was tantamount recognition that it wasn't clearly signposted. Every time I see that road it makes me furious.”
Kingston said the road restriction was not a “money-making scheme” and said the council was legally obliged to spend the money made from fines on transportation.
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