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Birmingham transport chiefs have secretly erected new bus lane signs – days before a traffic watchdog rules on the controversial scheme.

More than 80,000 motorists have been hit with £60 fines since cameras were installed in the city centre last September, including many families heading to the nearby Children’s Hospital.

Angry drivers have claimed inadequate warning signage saw them fall foul of the scheme, which has seen the council reap in at least £1.7 million in penalty payments.

Now, days before the independent watchdog arrives in the city to examine the scheme and hear fine appeals, the authority has secretly changed and introduced new signage.

One warning sign at the entrance to Priory Queensway had previously faced towards Colmore Circus Queensway. But it has now been swivelled 90 degrees to face down Steelhouse Lane instead.

The council has also installed new Birmingham Children’s Hospital direction signage at the entrance to Priory Queensway and outside the Jekyll and Hyde pub in Steelhouse Lane - allegedly erected under the cover of darkness.

None of the changes have been made public by the authority.

But campaigners calling for fines to be refunded claim the extra signs are an admission that transport chiefs had got it wrong.

Andy Mann, posting on a Facebook campaign page, said: “The fact Birmingham City Council has changed the signs is surely an admission the signage was inadequate. I still think there should be advance warning signs before the island.”

And Jamie Vickers added: “They obviously know they’re in the wrong and are feeling the heat. Why else would they change what in there eyes was not a problem and signed properly?”

Traffic watchdog Stephen Knapp visits Birmingham for an appeals tribunal on Wednesday. He has asked the authority to defend its controversial ticketing policy, amid suggestions road warning signs do not meet Government rules.

Last night, a spokesman for Mr Knapp said he had received extensive photographs and details of signs in evidence several weeks ago.

But the council refused to respond to claims the recent changes and installations were an admission it had got the scheme wrong, or that the alterations had been rushed through ahead of the tribunal hearing.

About a third of the fines issued were by a single camera on Priory Queensway.

Most complaints have come from motorists approaching the bus lane zone from Steelhouse Lane, who say that there is no advance warning of the bus zone before they turn left into Priory Queensway.

That sign has now been swivelled to face down Steelhouse Lane.

And in the last few days a small white sign directing motorists visiting Birmingham Children’s Hospital away from the bus lane has also appeared on the mini-roundabout, with a second one more recently erected next to the Jekyll and Hyde pub.

Ben Cheney launched the Facebook campaign against the ‘unfair’ enforcement after being fined while ferrying his grandson to the hospital. He is challenging his fine at the Traffic Parking Tribunal.

He said of the changes: “It is an obvious admission that the signage wasn’t adequate. Even now the white hospital sign is on the far side of the island and so small it’s easy to miss.

‘‘And I even heard the hospital sign outside the pub was installed at night.

“Why all this sudden rush? Is it before the Tribunal Adjudicator visits the site?’’

Yet the council’s under-fire transport chief Coun Tahir Ali has defended the scheme and insisted the majority of those fined are simply ignoring signs.

“This has always been a bus lane, the only thing which changed last year was that we started the enforcement,” he said.

He said a review of signs promised in January has been put back until after next week’s tribunal, adding: “We will see what the independent adjudicator has to say first.”

Mr Ali said the new hospital signs were put up in response to concerns raised by the Children’s Hospital following complaints from visitors. “I listened to those concerns and put up some advisory signs,” he said.

Mr Knapp will hear approximately 25 cases at the tribunal, convened at the Ibis Hotel in Ladywell Walk from 10am on Wednesday. If he rules the fines were wrongly imposed it could raise hopes thousands of other motorists could have their fine scrapped.