Drivers in Hampstead Garden Suburb can breathe a sigh of relief as action has finally been taken to alert road users to an infamous loading bay which stung almost 1,500 motorists with parking tickets last year.

Transport for London (TfL) has finally painted “LOADING ONLY” within the bay in Market Place after months of campaigning from Andrew Dismore, Labour’s London Assembly member for Barnet and Camden.

Mr Dismore said: “The number of tickets being given to motorists for inadvertently parking on this loading bay, which was extremely badly signed, made this location into a huge cash cow for the Mayor of London’s coffers, enforced by a hard to spot CCTV camera.

“The solution was simple: to paint on the carriageway, the words “loading only”. It has taken TfL months and months to act on my suggestion, but I am pleased at long last this has finally been done.”

Between January 1 and December 31 last year, TfL issued 1,490 penalty charge notices (PCNs) to drivers parking illegally in the bay.

It is an issue Hampstead Garden Suburb Residents’ Association insist they have campaigned about since 2005.

Paul Cowperthwaite, TfL’s head of contracted services, said: “We have listened to our customers and introduced additional signage to make it even clearer to motorists what traffic restrictions are in place at loading bays on our road network.

“We are pleased that the Department for Transport (DfT) granted approval for the new ‘Loading Only’ road markings and we introduced them as soon as the DfT gave its approval.”