Over 2,000 bus lane fines issued per week in Brum

MORE than 2,000 bus lane fines were issued on average per week in Birmingham during the first three months of 2018.

There are now 24 bus lane cameras operating in the city compared with 12 in 2016.

In line with this twofold increase, the total number of Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) is now on course to more than double from 2016, the earliest year for which comparative data is available.

A Freedom of Information (FOI) request has further revealed that the city council collected almost £9.5 million in bus lane fines in the past five financial years.

The exact sum raised from 2013 to 2018 was £9,445,130.09 – an average of £1,889,026 per financial year. That five-year total is almost enough to have equivalently funded the current £10 million rebuild of Centenary Square. The bus camera league table of fines for the first three months of 2018: 1. Bordesley Green East inbound towards Heartlands Hospital entrance – 4,904. 2. Corporation Street towards Lancaster Circus (inbound) – 2,800. 3. Lichfield Road at Grosvenor Road (outbound) – 2,618 4. Lichfield Road towards Salford Circus (outbound) – 2,280. 5. Bordesley Green East outbound from Station Road – 2,279. 6. St Martin’s Queensway (towards Moor Street Queensway) – 2,173. 7. Bordesley Green East outbound at Eastfield Road – 1,467. 8. Tyburn Road towards Kingsbury Road (inbound) – 1,264. 9. Pershore Road northbound between Pebble Mill Road and Priory Road – 1,148. 10. The Priory Queensway southbound to-wards Masshouse Lane – 1,069.

We also asked how many bus lane fines had been issued in Birmingham in each 12-month period during the past five years.

The city council said “information was no longer available prior to January, 2016”. But since then it said the following number of PCNs had been issued: 2016 – 49,778 (12 cameras – equivalent to 345 tickets per camera per month). 2017 – 32,636 (13 cameras – equivalent to 209 tickets per camera per month). 2018 – 26,306 from January to March (24 cameras – equivalent to 365 tickets per camera per month).

On a pro-rata basis, based on the first quarter of this year, the total number of PCNs that will be issued in 2018 is on course to reach 105,224 by the end of the year.

Bus lane fines pay for enforcement costs including the camera system, the maintenance of bus lane signs and lines, printing and postage to issue PCNs and staff to check and process PCNs and appeals. Any money left over “must be used to improve public transport and roads”.