TRADERS in Gloucester Road believe "confusing" parking restrictions in the bus lane are forcing their customers away.
They believe the "clear way" signs are confounding shoppers who park on the road of independent shops from the Cheltenham Road arches to the junction with Nevil Road.
Shop keepers call fining drivers who park in restricted hours as nothing more than "revenue raising" by the city council, which makes more than £78,000 a year through fining drivers on that stretch.
A Freedom of Information request has revealed that between July 1 last year and June 30 this year, 2,318 parking charge notices (PCNs) were issued to drivers, resulting in payments to Bristol City Council totalling £78,231.
This includes fines given to 168 drivers whose cars were then towed away. Those drivers then had to pay another £175 to get their cars back, raising another £29,400 for the council's vehicle removal contractor.
It means that on a stretch of Gloucester Road less than one mile long, £107,631 has been raised in just over a year through people parking in the bus lane at the wrong times.
Drivers are not allowed to park on the bus lane during weekdays from 7.30am to 9.30am or from 4.30pm to 6.30pm.
Dan Stern, 39, who owns The Fish Shop, told the Post: "I am sick of seeing customers getting parking tickets outside the shop and even being towed away.
"The main problem is that the signs are not in plain English so people get confused and park by mistake during the bus lane hours.
"As high streets are struggling in the face of supermarkets and the general economic slowdown this seems like revenue raising by the council, rather than an attempt to keep Bristol moving.
"People would not park in the bays if the signs were clearer.
"I have seen people in tears several times after getting tickets and having their cars towed away.
"Some traders have already put their own signs up in their windows to try to make it clearer."
Mr Stern and other traders would like the council to support them by making its own clearer signs.
Eva Fernandes, who owns baby shop Born and is a member of Gloucester Road Traders' Association, said that if the council's true intention was to keep the bus lane clear then it should work with traders to produce new signs.
She also said parking should not be banned on the inbound side of the road in the evening as most of the traffic at that time is heading in the opposite direction, out of Bristol.
"It doesn't make sense that people can not park on the inbound side of the road in the evenings – it just means we lose extra trading hours," she said.
Tom Murray, who owns butchers T&PA Murray Ltd, which has traded in the road for 22 years, said traders should get a business rate discount for the times when customers could not park in the bus lane.
Council spokeswoman Kate Hartas said: "The council has to enforce parking restrictions at peak times in order to keep clear ways for buses and emergency vehicles.
"It's also important to keep parking available for shopping and business. The signs indicating sometimes quite complex operating times are written to comply with regulations. It is very important that motorists read the signs carefully before parking."
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