CCTV equipment monitoring traffic offences has raised almost £13million for the town hall in five years – a report from campaign group Big Brother Watch has revealed.

The revenue was made between 2008 and 2013 and is the ninth highest among UK local authorities.

The figures, compiled from freedom of information requests submitted by campaign group Big Brother Watch, show that £312m was collected across the UK, 90 per cent of which was from London boroughs.

Brandon Lewis, Minister for Local Government, said that council’s were using camera’s to collect “industrial volumes” of money, which lead to “ghost town high streets”.

The council said the vast majority of tickets issued using CCTV were for traffic offences relating to width restrictions and cars stopping in yellow box junctions.

Cllr Andy Hull, executive member for transport, said: “In terms of traffic rules and regulations, the cameras are there to facilitate the free movements of traffic and all the money we collect from fines goes back in to making improvements in transport infrastructure.