One in four Medway drivers was booked by the council for motoring offences in the last year.

The information was divulged during a meeting of Medway council's regeneration committee.

The man in charge of the council's two spy cars, Cllr Phil Filmer (Con), said: "In the past year the parking services team issued 55,222 penalty notices between September 1 2009 and the same date in 2010.

"Of that amount 20,000 tickets were issued by the CCTV camera cars."
Cllr Filmer revealed more bad news for drivers: The tiny Smart cars are also enforcing the laws on Medway's bus lanes.

These are being extended in Rochester, Chatham, Twydall and Luton as part of a package to improve public transport in the Five Towns.

Cllr Filmer also revealed that all pay and display machines in Medway's car parks are being converted to solar power as part of a three-year programme.

The figure for fines is equivalent to one in four drivers in Medway being booked.

That is based on the latest available figures from the National Census estimate, which says there are 203,000 adults in the Medway Towns out of a population of over 250,000.