Traffic fines Bus lane penalties cost city motorists £2m last year
MORE than £2million of bus lane fines have been issued in the past year in Bristol, with more than 100,000 fines issued.
Of 51 councils across the country who supplied similar information, Bristol City Council had handed out more bus lane fines than the rest.
The data, obtained from councils through Freedom of Information requests, also reveals that Bristol City Council collected the sixth highest amount in the country from bus lane fines.
These figures come as Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees confirmed that the city’s Clean Air Zone is “on track” to launch in September, meaning motorists with older or more polluting cars will face charges for driving in the centre of the city.
Data obtained by finance firm Moneybarn reveals that, of the 51 councils that responded to the FOI request, Bristol City Council handed out the second highest number of bus lane fines of any area in the country. Only Manchester handed out more.
A total of 103,465 bus lane fines were handed out by Bristol City Council, which is less than Manchester’s 116,862 fines, but far more than Glasgow which comes third on the list having distributed 65,686 fines.
Bristol City Council has raked in revenue of £2,039,752 from those bus lane fines, collecting the sixth largest amount of money in the country.
Ahead of Bristol are Manchester, Barnet (London), Lambeth (London), Glasgow, and Birmingham.
The amount of money raised via traffic movement is likely to rise from September when Bristol’s Clean Air Zone is implemented to combat the high levels of pollution in the city.
Drivers of older and more polluting vehicles will have to pay a charge to enter certain areas of the city.
At a press conference on Wednesday, Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees confirmed the Clean Air Zone is “on track” to launch in September, but didn’t give a specific date, saying: “In terms of our work, we are on course – but this is also a national scheme. Delivering a Clean Air Zone has to be done with national government, but we have had no indication from national government yet that they are delayed.
“But then again it is always possible, because national government do not always deliver on time – when you look at the UK shared prosperity fund and a number of other announcements we have been waiting on from national.
“Things at the moment seem to be all on track.”
Post website Bristol Live revealed last week that most readers who responded to our survey on the Clean Air Zone do not agree with it. Of the 438 responses received, 59.8 per cent (262 responses) said they didn’t concur with the new scheme.
Bristol City Council has been approached for comment.