THURROCK Council is set to introduce a "lucrative" plan to fine motorists for traffic offences at Junction 31 of the M25.

The council is set to use legislation, which came into effect in 2021 which allows local authorities outside London to fine motorists for moving traffic offences at the Purfleet Interchange.

The legislation allows councils to use cameras to pick up offences in places such as box junctions, cycle and bus lanes or where turns are banned.

Cllr Ben Maney, the portfolio holder for Regeneration and Highways, unveiled the plan at an extraordinary corporate overview and scrutiny meeting of the council where budget proposals aimed at saving £18.2million for the debt-laden council were debated.

He said: "We are proposing to begin enforcing moving traffic offences at junction 31, particularly within the yellow junction there. It's an area has a high flow of traffic that's not local to Thurrock.

"It is vital that junction is kept clear. If you live in the heart of the borough and there is an incident at the Dartford crossing its often not that incident that causes our local road network to become gridlocked it is people blocking that junction and it's something police have highlighted.

"It's a significant capital investment but the returns from the enforcement activity there could be, I don't want to use the word lucrative, but they are.

"But it's not just about procuring an income it is about keeping an important junction free flowing."

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Cllr Val Morris-Cook supported the proposal, saying: "I for one think it's a great initiative. I don't think it's about finding that cash cow, it will benefit people by keeping traffic flowing."

However, the scheme met with criticism from other councillors.

Cllr Luke Spillman, chairman of the planning, transport and regeneration overview and scrutiny committee, said: "As someone who uses that junction every day, I've got a lot of knowledge about how that junction functions and the only time that junction becomes problematic is when there is some form of severe traffic incident like a lane blocked.

"It becomes a very pressured situation and very difficult to drive, so for me the idea of having a moving traffic penalty there is something I'm quite uncomfortable with.

"The only way you are going to collect fines is when there's periods of real traffic problems and I don't think that's fair on drivers."

Neil Speight, Independent councillor for Stanford-le-Hope West said the meeting was to discuss the council's budget, not road safety.

He said if it were then there were as many reasons not to do it as do it and he cited RAC objections to such schemes.

However, he suggested as the priority of the meeting was to look at saving money on the balance sheet, he could suggest a £150,000 saving straight away.

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The cost of installing the scheme is estimated at £498,000 while the project's annual revenue is £348,000.

"So if we put this back, next year's buget - which is what we are here to discuss - has an immediate saving of £150,000. I would like to suggest we do that and discuss highway matters at another time."