Up to 44 new traffic cameras could be installed across North Somerset in order to enforce new bus lanes being put in place.

There are currently four Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras (ANPR) in the district, all of which are in Weston-super-Mare and Worle. Now North Somerset Council plans to install more than ten times as many as this across the district to enforce 18 new bus priority schemes.

Long Ashton bypass will be the first road to get a new bus lane, with work starting on March 13. The bus lane will go towards Bristol and will see lanes for cars reduced to one lane in each direction, replacing the currently high occupancy lane on the bypass.

Cameras will be installed along the bypass to catch drivers who use the bus lane when they should not.

The schemes are being delivered through Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) funding but in order to draw down the government funding, the council needs to have the cameras in place to enforce the bus prioritisation schemes.

The council’s executive member for transport and highways Steve Hogg said: “The first seven schemes are all designed and ready to be put in.

“Obviously when we talk about enforcement and cameras, people get a bit nervous about it. But this is national policy. It is a requirement of BSIP that we do this.

“And actually, I would say why wouldn’t we do this? I think it’s really important.”

The cost of setting up the cameras will be covered by the BSIP funding when this is received. It will cost almost £160,000 a year to maintain the camera, but the council believe that fines from drivers who abuse the bus lanes will cover the ongoing costs.

It was confirmed in November that North Somerset would receive £48m of BSIP funding to improve the bus service in the area, with a further £57.5m being shared with the neighbouring West of England Combined Authority.

The North Somerset-specific grant will be invested in 300 new bus shelters, three new interchanges, and active travel improvements to help people access public transport, in addition to the 18 bus priority schemes.

The council is already working with the West of England Combined Authority to launch a new programme of demand responsive transport, with minibuses able to be booked to connect people in some isolated areas to bus routes.

There will be 16 minibuses in North Somerset running between 7am and 7pm when the scheme launches on Monday April 3.

But Mr Hogg added that he was frustrated that the deadline to use the BSIP funding had not been extended, even though the granting of the money was delayed.

He said: “We’ve basically got to spend the money in the next two years rather than the next three years. Its not easy to spend that amount of money on that amount of schemes in such a short timeframe.

 “So we’ve really got to inject pace into the delivery program and we’ve got to move at pace and make some pretty quick decisions about how we deploy it.”

The council executive voted to approve the procurement plans for the cameras and initial deployment zones for the new demand responsive travel buses