Politics: Bus gate fines help fund wider transport strategy

Leader of Oxfordshire County Council 

There has been extensive coverage in the Oxford Mail about the locations of bus-only gates and lanes in Oxford, as well as the £4m fines issued since 2008 to motorists who use bus-only lanes despite the signs warning them not to.

Obviously Oxfordshire County Council would rather not issue any fines to motorists at all. However, it is our responsibility to keep the public transport in Oxford moving to ensure accessibility for buses, taxis and emergency services. Despite having signs in place, about 70 penalty charge notices are issued daily to motorists who access bus-only lanes. The statutory charge is £60 but discounted to £30 if paid within the first 14 days.

To reduce congestion in Oxford and reduce bus and taxi journey times, Oxfordshire County Council has bus gates on High Street, Castle Street, George Street and Magdalen Street. Under the Road Traffic Act 1991, all money received through penalty charge notices is ‘ring-fenced’, and the regulations are very strict on what that money can be put towards. The surplus after operating costs are accounted for is approximately £300,000 per year.

Legislation is clear that this money can only be used to fund transport-related improvements within the city, which includes park-and-ride sites.

In 2010, we took steps to improve the signage in terms of their size, locations and wording. Since then, we have never lost an appeal made on the grounds of the signage being confusing.

The council is constrained by national signing regulations with regards to how it is able to sign the bus gates and is often not able to provide signing that is suggested by drivers. We are also limited where we can place signs on the High Street due to the potential for narrowing a busy footway and the location of basements on some of the buildings, which prevents excavation to the depth required to erect signs. Contrary to reports in the press, we never double-fine drivers going through the bus gate (ie when people turn around after realising that they made a mistake). We only issue one fine.

There are legal restrictions on what income from traffic enforcement undertaken by local authorities can be spent upon. In the first instance they are directed to covering operating costs or offsetting previous enforcement budget deficits. Any surplus above and beyond is ring-fenced to either meeting costs of facilities or operations for public transport services or purposes of highway improvement projects.

Of the £4.8m received in penalty charges since the council took over enforcement of the bus gates in the centre of Oxford in 2008, £2.7m has been spent on operating costs. Operating costs would include maintenance of signs and equipment, contractor costs to operate, capture and issue penalty charge notices, front line staff to respond to customer questions or consider any penalty charge notices that are contended, plus all associated overheads such as ICT hardware and software, accommodation etc). This leaves a surplus of approx. £2m or an average of approximately £300,000 per year.

All enforcement surplus – including on street pay and display parking – has in the past been used to contribute funds to the operation and improvement of park-and-ride sites at Water Eaton and Thornhill, to enable free parking to offset the £725,000 annual operating costs of those sites.

Since the introduction of charges at those sites any surpluses left over following balancing contributions to park-and-ride operating costs are being held into reserve for investment in projects such as future park-and-ride projects (such as the recent extension to Thornhill) or schemes that will assist bus operations either through bus priority schemes or highway maintenance on bus routes within Oxford.

I hope that the above demonstrates that the county council sees the enforcement of bus gates as part of a broader transport strategy for Oxford.