Drivers who ‘idle’ are set to be given fixed penalty notices if a motion presented to Camden council is approved.

A report, ‘engine idling enforcement’, was authorised at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday and will be delivered at a full council meeting on November 20.

If the report is granted approval, it will mean drivers in Camden who sit at the side of the road with their engines running will face the risk of being issued with a fine in the form of a fixed penalty notice. Adam Harrison, cabinet member for for improving Camden’s environment said: “Engine-idling is very antisocial, poisoning the air we breathe and harming the health of us all.

“I am very pleased we will soon be able to issue fines against engine-idling right across the borough, as opposed to the street-by-street regime in place before. I believe the full council will agree the new powers.”

Phil Cowan, a Primrose Hill community campaigner hopes that the council will follow through with their proposals if they are passed.

“This motion is very encouraging but I want this to be proactively enforced and I want them to actually be out their fining people who idle,” he said.

“I don’t think idlers realise the person they are harming the most is themselves and my hope is one day engine idling will be seen in the same way smoking is.”

Residents in Primrose Hill have recently grown fed up with coach drivers who park on Prince Albert Road and leave their engines running all day.

Racing pundit John McCririck described the coaches as ‘disgusting’.

Westminster and Islington have already adopted penalty charges and drivers in the borough face a fine of £80 if caught idling.