Bus Lanes
Received a Bus Lane Penalty Charge Notice?
penaltychargenotice.co.uk – bringing you one of the most comprehensive sites on bus lane enforcement in the world.
In London alone hundreds of thousands of Penalty charge notices (PCNs) are issued for Bus Lane contraventions each year. These penalty charge notices are issued by an army of CCTV cameras. Local authorities all over the country are now allowed to enforce bus lanes in this way.
Some people believe that many local authorities use bus lanes as a tool to generate much needed revenue. We have seen many adjudicators’ decisions where the local authority have been criticised for overzealous enforcement. The cost of a penalty charge for a bus lane contravention in London is substantially more than outside London. It is actually more than a fixed penalty for shoplifting! However, as we have discovered, much enforcement is carried out erroneously or even illegally – for example many bus lanes are longer than they should be and not marked or signed correctly, yet the enforcing authority continue to issue penalty charge notices – often illegally.
LOCAL AUTHORITIES RELY ON THE FACT THAT MANY MOTORISTS SIMPLY PAY UP BECAUSE THEY DON’T KNOW THE RULES ON SIGNAGE AND LINEAGE REQUIREMENTS OR DON’T WANT THE HASSLE OF WRITING IN. DON’T LET THEM GET AWAY WITH IT. USUALLY YOU HAVE NOTHING TO LOOSE BY WRITING IN AS YOU WILL NORMALLY NOT LOSE THE DISCOUNT IF YOU WRITE IN WITHIN 14 DAYS – EVEN IF THEY REJECT WHAT YOU SAY.
You can see how ridiculous enforcement has become by looking at the attached video taken by Camden Council in London, The first few seconds relate to something else. Even more ridiculous is the fact that the independent bus lane adjudicator upheld the fine! This can surely only be about revenue raising.
Also look at these pictures taken by Newham Council. The BMW isn’t even in the bus lane! This isn’t the only Newham bus lane ticket that we have seen where the vehicle was not in the bus lane.
This comprehensive section on Bus Lanes will tell you everything you may want to know about bus lanes and the many grounds on which you can have a penalty charge notice cancelled. It will tell you about the rules, regulations and procedures which authorities must follow whilst carrying out enforcement and guide you through the appeals process. You will read about little known rules and concessions like the 20 metre concession and also the very strict signage and lineage requirements which often are not in place and could result in a penalty charge notice being cancelled. In fact there are over 20 potential ways of having a penalty charge notice cancelled which are explained in this section. It will also explain the appeal procedure and provide you with summaries of over 35 mostly unpublished adjudicator’s decisions on important cases where motorist’s appeals have been upheld.
We lobby local authorities and the Government about incorrect and unfair Bus Lane enforcement. We have highlighted many areas where enforcement is being carried out incorrectly and have made complaints to the local Government ombudsman.
In one interesting adjudicators decision in Kingston the motorist said that the legally required signs were not in place and the council refuted this. However the camera didn’t film the car passing the signs as it was located ahead of the car rather than behind the car. The adjudicator allowed the appeal as he hadn’t seen any evidence that the signage was in place.
Full details in the information and grounds for appeal and adjudicators sections.