Bus lane victims shouldn’t be driving, says chief
PEOPLE still being snared by a Walsall bus lane labelled a “trap” probably shouldn’t be driving at all, according to council boss Mike Bird.
Walsall Council has started a review into the Wolverhampton Street bus gate which has caught out drivers and seen almost 25,000 fines being dished out.
Labour group leader Aftab Nawaz called for the gate to be scrapped and all those fined to date to be refunded at a full council meeting.
But Cllr Bird said anyone still getting caught given the amount of publicity the controversial measure has attracted and extra signage put up at the site needed to get their eyes tested.
A traffic regulation order (TRO) was introduced in November 2020 to cut traffic coming into the town centre with fines starting to be issued in July last year.
Figures showed a total of almost 25,000 fixed penalty notices had been issued to drivers, which saw the authority rake in £410,000. The fines are £30 but go up to £60 if not paid within two weeks.
Cllr Nawaz said: “People contacted me when they were getting tickets when they were driving through Wolverhampton Street.
“At that time I thought it was a one-off but I was getting a lot of calls. When I looked into it, I found that so many people were getting caught it was a concern. And statistics showed 25,000 tickets were issued.
“We ask we re-look at this with a consideration of removing this bus gate and we try and do more to get the public on board with this. And
we also give the money back to the people who were fined. It is only the right thing to do.”
But the motion was defeated and deputy leader Cllr Adrian Andrew said: “I had some conversations with businesses and we’ve already started the review of this particular bus gate.
“It is not a permanent one. It was put in place as an operational matter as part of the short term measures to facilitate operation of the town centre during Covid.
“In terms of trying to refund everybody, it wouldn’t be possible.
“Of the 25,000 PCNs only six per cent have been appealed. Most of the appeals, particularly before the signage was improved, have been agreed. We won’t be bounced into removing it.”
Council leader Cllr Mike Bird warned members to declare an interest if they’d been fined if they intended on voting for the motion.
He added: “If you go into the bus lane after all the publicity it has had, I’d question whether you should be driving at all. It might be very well that your eyesight requirements are short. My advice is don’t go down the bus lane.”