VOLUNTEER ambulance driver George Hunter is urging the county council to help patients by relaxing bus gate restrictions in Oxford High Street.

Since 1999, general traffic has been banned from driving through Oxford bus gates, including the one in High Street, between 7.30am and 6.30pm.

Ambulances manned by trained staff can only go through the bus gate if they are on an emergency call, otherwise they risk being caught on camera and fined.

Now Mr Hunter, of Beverley Close, Abingdon, is calling for a change in the regulations after he received a £60 penalty charge for driving through the bus gate in his volunteer ambulance on November 24 last year.

The 76-year-old said: “Patients who have been on dialysis machines can be at the Churchill Hospital for five hours and going through the bus gate in the rush hour can cut about 40 minutes off the journey to return them to their homes in the city centre.

“I wouldn’t want to go through the bus gate for every journey, because at some times of the day it’s quicker to go round the ring road.

“When I was ticketed I was taking a patient who had been on dialysis to her home in the city centre and I thought it was in her interest to get her home as soon as possible.

“I will now have to pay the fine. I won’t go through the bus gate again, because I don’t get paid for this and can’t afford to keep getting fined.

“I think the county council could allow ambulance drivers, including volunteers, to use their discretion and allow them through the bus gate when it is in patients’ interests, even when it is not an emergency.

The father-of-two, a volunteer driver for South Central Ambulance’s patient transport service, appealed to the council to waive the fine.

When the council refused he appealed his case to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal but found out last week that he has lost his appeal.

Mr Hunter, who lives with his wife Jean, 74, has been a volunteer driver for the past six years after careers as a financial adviser and an RAF technician.

Doug Sinclair, head of patient transport for the South Central Ambulance Service , said: “We have approached the county council before, to ask if non-emergency patient transport vehicles may use bus lanes.

“The council has said ‘no’ and we accept that decision.

“Our patient transport staff and volunteer car drivers are fully aware of this.

“Mr Hunter is entitled to express his views.

“However, the ambulance service has no plans at present to challenge the council again on this decision.”

Becky Trotman, of St John Ambulance in Oxfordshire, which has paid staff and volunteers, said: “This is not a major issue for our drivers, as the majority of their work does not involve going into the city centre.”

County council spokesman Owen Morton said there were no plans to review the types of vehicles exempt from the restrictions.

Vehicles currently exempt are buses, taxis, licensed private hire vehicles (carrying a passenger or answering a call for hire), pedal cycles, police, ambulance and fire vehicles in emergencies and police patrol vehicles, Royal Mail vehicles, cash collection vehicles, utilities vehicles and council vehicles doing work requiring access to the street.