Fuming traders in St Margarets are calling for a set of 'crazy and confusing' parking signs to be abolished after it emerged a single loading bay raked in a whopping £1,400 a day in fines.

An eye-watering 10,000 penalty charge notices were incurred at the spot in Crown Street over a period of 20 months, it was revealed last week.

Shopkeepers say there are a number of different parking restrictions in place but it is not clear which sections of the road come under which rule.

Darren Armstrong, of Armstrong's family butchers, said: "Some people come in here to my shop completely infuriated and fuming. They've been ticketed by wardens that take advantage of the tiniest infringement.

"There is a crazy confusion over one kind of parking being different in one bit of road to another. People find that they've bought vouchers from a shop when they should have used a machine, or they're bamboozled by the explanation on a goods loading sign."

One particular sign is so confusing that even baffled traders have ended up falling foul of the wardens.

"People sit there scratching their heads over the sign in St Margarets' Road, and I can't blame them," said Mr Armstrong.

A spokeswoman for Richmond Council confirmed the number of fines and the daily average revenue.

She added: "We have a live CCTV camera that records when people stop and park - that is to say they get out of their car, lock it and run an errand.

"But they won't get a letter fining them if the camera shows they've stopped to read the sign, and then move on.

"It's true that someone will get fined for stopping and shopping even for a short period, as is normal."

However council transport chief David Trigg had some good news for traders, revealing that the vouchers scheme is to be abolished.

He said: "It will be replaced by a pay and display system for all but the loading signs within the next few months."

"The number of fines was high when we first put up this notice, but it has tailed off considerably now," he said.

Richmond Council took £3.2 million in parking fines across the borough over the past year.

Traders even accused the council of making parking restrictions difficult to comprehend purely to generate revenue.

Do you have any other examples of confusing signs? Email your pictures to newsrichmond@trinitysouth.co.uk