Box junction cut down to size

Big, yellow and menacing, it was attacked by drivers as a licence to print money.

Today, however, London's most feared yellow box junction has been cut down to size - after being exposed by the Evening Standard as the "perfect scam".

Overnight, workmen moved into High Holborn with paintbrushes to reduce the monster yellow box, which was generating £60,000 in fines a month, by more than 55 feet.

Instead of 144 feet stretching west of Procter Street to Holborn Tube station, it is now 88 feet long. Drivers are jubilant at the move by Camden council, which had insisted the junction was vital on safety grounds and to keep traffic moving.

"It is a victory for the Standard which highlighted what a nonsense the junction was," said black-cab driver Steve McNamara.

Today Camden council admitted the junction had been too big. But it will not spare the 4,472 drivers fined for blocking it since enforcement started in June.

Normally yellow boxes are put at junctions to stop static traffic blocking vehicles moving in a different direction - but at High Holborn the road is part of a one-way system. An Evening Standard survey found that in two hours one lunchtime, 158 vehicles, including two police cars, stopped illegally in the box.

The Highway Code says drivers should only enter a yellow box if their exit is clear, or blocked only by oncoming traffic if turning right.

Since July local authorities have been able to enforce traffic rules, including those relating to yellow boxes. Today John Thane, Camden's executive member for the environment, said: "We listened to concerns and are responding accordingly."