City-based Thomas Ash & Sons Ltd Vehicle Recovery and Roadside Assistance has been hit with three £60 fines since May, despite only entering the bus lanes to recover broken down taxis.

One of the images sent with the ticket to the firm clearly shows the driver towing a broken down taxi.

All three fines have been overturned on appeal, but the time-consuming appeal process is giving owner Thomas Ash Snr a major headache.

He said the major frustration is not being able to talk to anyone at Glasgow City Council.

He said all communication is through email.

The firm, based in Carntyne, has contracts to recover broken down taxis and emergency vehicles around the city.

Mr Ash, who runs the family business with his wife, daughter and two sons, said: "We've been in business since 1959 and we have the contracts for all the major taxi companies as well as Strathclyde Fire and Rescue.

"There must be thousands of taxis in the city so there is always a chance they will break down in a bus lane, and the same goes for fire engines.

"We've got three fines so far, despite it being obvious that we have only been in the bus lanes to recover taxis.

"The fines have been waived, but only after going through a frustrating appeal process, which requires that we produce invoices from our customers and send off three copies of the forms.

"The most frustrating thing is that we can never actually speak to anyone at the council, it's all done through e-mail.

"There must surely be a way for us to avoid going through this process every time we recover a vehicle from a bus lane.

"We've simply got no choice but to go into the bus lanes to do our job."

The tickets were issued on May 4, May 24 and June 8.

The controversial fines were brought into force in April this year and, as revealed in the Evening Times, in the first 11 weeks more than 39,000 drivers were fined, bringing in more than £1 million.

CCTV cameras were installed at 11 locations on busy main roads leading into the city centre.

A council spokesman said: "We have received three appeals from the company and each enforcement notice has been rescinded.

"We will be contacting the company to discuss the situation further."

stef.lach@ heraldandtimes.co.uk