A COUPLE has launched a landmark legal case to overturn controversial bus lane fines that could open the floodgates to hundreds of similar challenges.
Geoffrey and Dawn Bonelle are fighting back against Scotland’s most lucrative bus lane camera, which has raked in £1.3 million from motorists in a single year.
The couple from Livingston claim their original £30 fine – imposed after Mr Bonelle, 67, drove through a bus gate in October 2014 – was unfair due to a lack warning signs.
Motorists have been hit with nearly £3m in penalty charges for driving through the gate at Nelson Mandela Place, in Glasgow city centre, in just over a year.
Mrs Bonelle, 59, said: “We want our day in court to see if the sheriff can make the council prove these signs were not only legal but were in the correct place and correct height.”
“They have made a lot of money from this bus gate. We hope this case would open the doors for thousands of other drivers.”
Unlike speed-camera fines, which go the UK Treasury, those from the bus lane cameras are retained by the city council for transport improvements.
Mrs Bonelle paid a £274 fine “under duress” because they were worried the council might try to make a claim on their possessions, including their home.
But now they are launching a civil case to recoup that cost and hope it may become a test case that will allow others to claim their fines are unfair.
“We want to claim the money back because we feel they can’t prove and haven’t proved the signs were not only legal, but put on the right place, at the right height,” said Mrs Bonelle.
Greg Whyte, of legal firm Jones Whyte Law, said if the court found in their favour it would open up avenues for others to make legal challenges.
He said: “The crux of their case is that area is not properly signposted.
“If a sheriff at Glasgow Sheriff Court rules that they are correct, it opens the floodgates for those who have one of these tickets to say they didn’t see it either and had no reason to believe it was a bus lane.”
In August, it emerged motorists who flouted the bus lane ban at Nelson Mandela Place had paid out £1.3m in fines after 70,000 charge notices issued to car drivers between the end of June and the end of July last year.
The council said 44,000 of the fines had been paid to date.
Many of these had been reduced from £60 to £30 because they were settled within two weeks.
The council then warned outstanding fines would be pursued, and passed to a debt recovery agency if necessary. If all are paid, that would produce another £1.5m.
Bus lane fines paid across the city totalled £1.6m in 2014 and £1.2m in the first half of 2015. This compares to nearly £3.3m in 2013.
A Glasgow City Council spokesman said: “Numerous signs and variable messaging have been in place to alert drivers to the bus gate at Nelson Mandela Place since June 2014.
“Since then the number of fixed penalty notices issued on this location has dropped significantly as people are choosing not to drive through what is now a very well-known and publicised bus gate.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel