Riders have slammed the penalty as excessive and "crazy" and the council says it has seven signs around the square warning riders they risk a fine. Community Services chair Geraldine Knapp said riders received a warning before being fined unless they were directly endangering public safety or damaging property. "People haven't been allowed to cycle or skate through King George Square for almost 40 years so this is nothing new," Cr Knapp said. "These are busy public spaces and we can't have cyclists or skaters careering through crowds of people and knocking them over. "The best way for people to avoid a fine is to hop off their bike or board and walk it through the square, just as they would when they're crossing the road."

Veteran skateboarder Sam Messina said he knew several people who had copped the fine. "$500 is pretty crazy, what do you have to do in your car to cop a $500 fine?" the Skatebiz manager said. "I can see their [public safety] point but that's a lot of money for riding a skateboard." Instead of fining people they should be promoting the sport as a healthy activity and getting more people into it. Mr Messina said the council should be encouraging more people to use the environmentally-friendly and healthy alternative to cars.

He no longer skates in the city because there are too many no-go zones. "I don't think it should be a problem for people to skate through [the square]," Mr Messina said. "Obviously if they're wrecking public property then that's a different story but a lot of people use skateboarding for transport. "Instead of fining people they should be promoting the sport as a healthy activity and getting more people into it. "They spend all this money on other means of transport like busways and tunnels, they should [spend some to promote] skateboarding, bikes, rollerblades as an effective means of transport."

Bicycle Queensland manager Ben Wilson, who represents 11,000 cyclists, said he was in disbelief the fine was so high. "That seems to be well out of kilter with fines for other misdemeanours," Mr Wilson said. He was not aware of his members copping the fine and suggested it could be kids riding BMX bikes or couriers using it as a short cut and riding too fast. Mr Wilson said he would seek confirmation from council that cautious cyclists would not be fined in the square on their way to the new bike parking station. "It's a city link to be able to get through to the roadway in front of King George Square," he said.

Since September last year, on-the-spot fines of $500 have been issued rather than sending offenders to court, where the penalty could be increased to $5000.