An Australian tourist who visited Swindon as part of a UK-wide holiday says she will not visit the town again after being handed a fine for driving in bus lane.

Helen Haywood, from Tasmania, said that she sees the Penzance Drive bus lane as a “money-making scam”, and insists that she will not be visiting to be “swindled by Swindon” again.

She said: “I returned home to Tasmania from a wonderful holiday in the UK on July 19.

“However, the memories were marred with the arrival of a bus lane fine of £30 from Swindon Borough Council.

“As the fine had to go via Avis they too thought it a good idea to charge me an additional £30 for their trouble – an expensive hour for me in Swindon.

“I came to Swindon to check out the Designer Factory Outlet, I think next time I'll research less complex and costly places to visit for such shopping, for example: Ashford, Bicester, York or Cheshire Oaks, to name but a few.”

She said she then researched the location where she had received the fine, and discovered an article in The Adver about the number of her fellow drivers who had received penalty notices in the same area.

She said: “People who hold a driver’s licence possess observation and analytical skills, so how come so many find themselves in the Penzance Bus Lane without knowing they are in it and have indeed broken the law?

“Intelligence tells them that this is a money-making scam designed to look like a road safety feature and transport priority for the council.”

A Swindon Borough Council spokesman said: “More than 3.5m people visited the Designer Outlet Centre last year and the Penzance Drive bus gate is in force to help public transport work efficiently in what is an extremely busy part of town.

“It is not there to trap people, and any money received through bus gate fines is spent on highways-related projects such as Shopmobility, public passenger transport services, highway improvements, maintenance and other environmental improvements.

“On the approaches to the bus gate there are more than a dozen signs, while the bus gate itself has highly visible road markings.

“All our signs meet the appropriate regulations for visibility and frequency, but we do monitor and review the signs as appropriate. In fact, we recently changed the text and colour of one of the signs following feedback from motorists.”

An FOI request submitted earlier this year showed that 51,180 drivers have been fined for incursions into the Penzance Drive bus lane since July 2014, with fines totalling almost £1.5m.