Last month 169 motorists were caught driving illegally in Richmond Park, police said.

Trade and business vehicles are banned from entering the park and anyone caught is given a £50 fine.

The only exemptions, under the Royal Parks and Other Open Spaces Regulations 1997, are for:

• taxis
• vehicles in use for conducting business with a park resident/ business
• vehicles in use to help someone who has broken down in the park.

Absence of cameras

Royal Parks Police said on Twitter: "In September, officers based at #RichmondPark reported 169 vehicles for driving in the park without authorisation #NoVansWithoutPermission."

The real number of vehicles illegally using the park is likely to be far higher.

As we reported, cameras are not used at the gates where vehicles enter.

Asked why cameras are not used to enforce the regulation, the police said if Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras were implemented they may pick up trade vehicles which are allowed to access the park.

"Some vehicles are allowed into the park though which would hinder the ANPR cameras," a police spokesperson told us.

"For example, the tanker may be visiting a venue that has a septic tank, so would be permitted."

It therefore falls on parks police officers and reports from members of the public to catch those ignoring the rules.

Response to Royal Parks Police tweet

Replying to the force's tweet, numerous users suggested 169 was a very low number for a whole month.

Karmugil wrote: "how many days was this spread over? Seems like you could easily do this in one day. How many repeat offenders did you catch?"

Twickerman said: "That's an avg of just 5.6 vans per day. Approx the number you see every 5-10 minutes. Must try harder. More enforcement, more efficient enforcement and higher fines required."

Richmond Cycling said: "There are (iirc) 4 full time officers to cover Bushy and Richmond Parks. That's not going to get you many tickets, with the best will in the world."

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