More than 450 drivers were fined in a month for driving down a market street when it was empty of stalls.

The home of one of the oldest market charters, Surrey Street, is packed with stalls from Monday to Saturday and Croydon Council has ordered the road be free from traffic between 5am and 8pm every day.

However, with no market there on Sundays, hundreds of drivers are being caught out driving down the road and slapped with a £65 fine.

On four Sundays in August, 451 drivers were fined, resulting in almost £30,000 in revenue for the council.

Robert Vanson, 74, was fined after unwittingly using the road on August 5, along with 166 others issued fines the same day.

He said: “I drove in from the bottom end by Church Street. I never saw the sign. If there were stalls there of course I wouldn’t go down there but it was empty.

“I don’t understand why the council has made it a pedestrian zone on a Sunday – I think it is misleading and done to make money.”

A council spokesman said: “Pedestrianised Surrey Street is closed to through-traffic on Sundays in order to ensure it is a safe environment for pedestrians on every day of the week.

“Only drivers who have off-street parking in the road are entitled to enter the road.

“Although the pedestrian zone has been introduced only relatively recently and is now enforced, there has been a ban on motorised vehicles in Surrey Street since April 2000.

“The zone was advertised in the press and on street notices in January 2011 and came into operation on May 21 this year.”