A 500 metre-long street made the council more than half a million pounds last year in parking tickets and fines.

Clements Road, Ilford, brought in �514,470 – the seventh highest for any street in the country. At �60 a ticket this would mean 8,575 people were caught last year – equating to 23 people a day.

One of the Clements Road victims, father-of-two Phil Evans, 34, of Ashley Avenue, Barkingside, received his ticket after briefly stopping to pick up his pregnant wife.

“I hadn’t parked, I had my daughter in the back and the engine was still running while I was waiting for my wife to come out of the Exchange,” he said. “I was there under a minute. I haven’t been back since, it’s put me off.”

The haul of fines means the council has netted around �1,000 per metre.

Owner of Ilford Convenience Corner newsagents, in Clements Road, Swaadat Hussain, 46, said: “It’s a big problem, especially when I have a delivery as there’s a double line around my shop.

“It’s damaging my business. The council don’t want to listen, how am I meant to survive?”

Mohammed Rahman, 22, of Stratford, has received nine tickets this year in Clements Road alone. He said: “It’s not fair. They need to put up more signs. I paid for two hours in a bay and was a few minutes late and got a ticket.”

The Kenneth More Theatre, Central Library and Travelodge hotel are all in Clements Road.

Rahman Arshad, 29, Travelodge manager, said: “I think it’s ridiculous. There are so many businesses there and there are lots of occasions when people stop the car for a couple of minutes and get a ticket.

“They should make an area where you can stop for 20 minutes. Even ordered taxis waiting for guests get tickets.”

The street has CCTV cameras and is patrolled by parking wardens.

Mr Arshad said: “The parking wardens are down there every 10 minutes and they start really early in the morning.”

The news comes a week after a man was ticketed in Barkingside High Street after asking a parking warden for directions.

Topping the list of the UK’s most profitable streets for parking fines was Southampton Row, central London which brought in �1,198,870. The figures were uncovered by a Freedom of Information request by a national newspaper.

Redbridge Council did not respond to our inquiries before we went to press.