Opposition call for inquiry into bus lane scandal

COUNCIL RISK HISTORY REPEATING ITSELF, WARN LIB DEMS

A “COMPLETELY unrepentant” Newcastle City Council risks repeating the multi-million pound mistakes of the John Dobson Street bus lane saga, opposition councillors have warned.

The city’s Liberal Democrats have repeated calls for an independent inquiry into the scandal, which took a new twist last week when council bosses announced that tens of thousands of drivers caught out by the infamous bus lane camera can now claim a refund.

An adjudicator’s ruling last month accused city transport chiefs of “fundamental negligence” over John Dobson Street’s northbound bus lane camera, which was dubbed the most lucrative in the country before being switched off in 2017 amid complaints that warning signs for approaching motorists were inadequate.

Almost 92,000 fines were issued for vehicles driving in the bus lane in 2016 and 2017, but Newcastle City Council is now attempting to draw a line under the longrunning debacle by offering up to £2.5 million in refunds.

Despite denying any wrongdoing and complaining that there were “gaping holes” in the Traffic Penalty Tribunal’s verdict, the council announced last week that around 73,000 tickets will be refunded “as a gesture of goodwill” if drivers make an application.

But opposition councillors are demanding a full investigation into the saga, saying that taxpayers are “entitled to answers”. The Lib Dems slammed the council for making drivers apply for the refunds rather than sending them automatically and for setting “arbitrary time limits”.

Roughly 65,000 drivers eligible for the refunds are being “encouraged” to submit their online application by October 9, with the council saying that staff will be dedicated to dealing with them for the next eight weeks only – although it will still consider later submissions.

The bus lane camera is now due to be switched back on after new signs are installed, but the Lib Dems say that should not happen until the council will “commit to implementing all lessons learnt from a thorough, impartial review of the decision making process that led to this humiliating climb down”.

The group’s leader, Coun Nick Cott, said: “A council that genuinely understood drivers’ frustrations with these unfair penalties would proactively issue refunds, not put barriers in place to receiving them.

“The intention to swiftly switch the cameras back on, whilst remaining completely unrepentant, risks carelessly making the same mistakes again. An impartial inquiry and learning exercise is desperately needed.”

Drivers can only have one of their penalty charge notices from the John Dobson Street camera refunded, unless they received a second within 14 days.

Coun Arlene Ainsley, the council’s Labour cabinet member for transport, responded: “Rather than spouting an uninformed opinion, the Lib Dem Opposition should read the barrister’s legal findings and the technical report which clearly highlights the failings of the long-awaited Chief Adjudicator’s review and is publicly available on our website.

“As we clearly set out, we have strong grounds for a judicial review, but rather than go through a lengthy and expensive High Court challenge, we have taken the swift and pragmatic decision to offer refunds to motorists as a gesture of goodwill, to allow us to draw a line under this issue once and for all.”

An impartial inquiry and learning exercise is desperately needed

Coun Nick Cott