UK councils earning up to £12 million from bus lane fines - full list of worst offenders

Local councils across the UK are making millions of pounds from fining motorists who stray into bus lanes, new figures show.

Motor experts at Moneybarn analysed Freedom of Information (FOI) data to uncover the number of fines issued across UK local authorities and the total income generated from these fines.

FOI requests were sent to 50 of the biggest UK local council areas by population size, plus the 32 London boroughs and the City of London, making 83 requests in total. Of these, 55 councils supplied the full information requested - 27 in London and 28 for the rest of the UK.

The data requested was the total number of bus lane penalty notice charges (PCNs) that were handed out by local authorities in the 2021/22 financial year, plus the revenue from these, to reveal which council makes the most income from bus lane fines.

Findings showed that Manchester City Council raked in the most money from such fines, generating an annual income of £12.95 million in the 2021/22 financial year. This money was raised from 174,963 fines handed out to motorists in Manchester - almost £10 million more than the previous year.

Bristol Council made the second highest income, with bus lane fines generating £4.96 million. In the previous year, the council generated £2.04 million from these fines showing its income has more than doubled. The funds came from a total of 176,368 PCNs being issued - more than anywhere else in the country, according to the research.

Birmingham City Council ranked in third with a total of £4.84 million generated from 176,299 bus lane fines last year - an increase of more than £3.5 million on the previous year.

As for the London boroughs, Lambeth Council was found to make the most, generating more than £2 million in revenue from 44,701 PCNs - amounting to an average of over £6,000 per day. Across all of the 27 boroughs in the capital that supplied information, the average revenue from bus lane fines was £468,000.

UK councils earning the most from bus lane fines

Listed are the 28 local councils across the UK earning the most revenue from bus lane fines, according to research from Moneybarn:

London boroughs earning the most from bus lane fines

Listed are the 27 London boroughs earning the most revenue from bus lane fines, according to research from Moneybarn:

How to appeal a bus lane fine

Motorists who receive a bus lane fine and feel it was issued unfairly may be able to appeal it.

Reasons for appealing the fine can include if your vehicle was taken without your consent, the traffic order was invalid, or if the alleged contravention did not happen - i.e. you didn’t actually drive in the bus line.

You could also have grounds for appeal if the council sent the fine by mistake, or the bus lane signs and marking were not correctly displayed.