Congratulations to reporter Katherine Palmer and her excellent Gazette article on March 13 regarding bus gates.

I am suing the Department of Transport regarding bus gates with a case being heard on May 17.

I am appealing for help from a public-spirited lawyer who can assist me bring my case.

Legal Aid has been cut by a third. However, as this case is in the public interest, I hope to attract some pro bono support from a lawyer interested in helping the community?

The legislation that allowed bus gates was enacted three years ago.

Bus gates and bus lanes are not the same things, as this article highlights.

The government failed to include bus gates in four documents including the Official Highway Code and Know Your Road Signs downloadable from the YouGov website.

You might ask how can driving instructors teach student drivers properly when bus gates are not included in the Highway Code.

The sign lights at Hythe Station Road are still not working, which was a reason why I won one of my two cases.

I am still fighting the second case when I drove through this bus gate on a return journey during the day.

There is a virtual forest of signs, some overlapping others, and bearing in mind in the autumn of 2017 I had no idea what a bus gate was at that time, I am still fighting my case.

I have already been visited by Essex County Council's bailiffs and signed a warrant of control in order not to have equipment, paid for by grants and support by the public, taken away.

The council argues a bus gate has been installed because there is a level crossing and to help with bus punctuality.

It claims this is not money making scheme.

Around the globe, in the USA and Australia for example, motoring fines are being used to finance public sector spending, such as local authority workers’ pensions, as tax revenue has fallen due to austerity.

In the UK, instead of raising money by increasing taxes and being held to account at the ballot box, this is a backdoor way of bringing in revenue.

More than 58,000 fines have been levied from just one bus gate in Chelmsford. This is big business.

I hope I can find a lawyer willing to help defend Essex motorists.

If you are the person who can help, please contact me via the Gazette.

Simon Collyer

Founder of the Association of Pension and Benefits Claimants

Avignon Close, Colchester