How many bus lane Penalty Charge Notices Bath & North East Somerset Council issues across Bath, from which cameras, how much it raises, and how often challenges succeed — from data released under Freedom of Information (ref IG-3018713).
109,885
PCNs issued in 5 years2021/22–2025/26
£3.46m
gross income, 5 yearsnet of costs not held
17,723
PCNs in 2025/26across 9 cameras
72%
paid at the £35 discount2025/26
25%
of challenges upheld2025/26
This page reports data released by Bath & North East Somerset Council under the Freedom of Information Act (IG-3018713, responded 2026-08-12). Figures are the council's own. BusLaneCheck is independent and not affiliated with the council. Compare every UK authority →
Bus lane PCNs issued per yearGross PCN income per year
Bath is one of the most heavily enforced small cities in the data — 109,885 penalties in five years from nine cameras — but the number is falling fast, from 31,631 in 2021/22 to 17,723 in 2025/26, a drop of 44%. The two medieval-centre bus gates dominate: Pulteney Bridge and Milsom Street between them account for 55,845 penalties, more than half the city's total, though both have roughly halved since 2021/22 as drivers learned the layout. Northgate Street runs the other way, up from 1,627 in 2022/23 to 2,474 in 2025/26. The cameras have raised £3,459,309 gross, an average of £31.48 for every penalty issued. Challenges here are both common and unusually successful: 23,407 formal representations over four years against 78,254 penalties, and the council cancelled 5,708 of them while rejecting 3,778 — for every hundred drivers who challenged and got a decision, sixty won. Appeals beyond that have fallen steeply, from 134 in 2021/22 to 38 in 2025/26, though the council does not record how any of them ended.
Which cameras issue the most fines
Camera-enforced bus lane locations ranked by PCNs issued in 2025/26. The last column is the 5-year total.
Nine camera sites, all of them in Bath itself — five bus gates in the historic centre and four bus lanes on the approaches. Two of the eleven Bath bus lanes we hold pages for, Argyle Street and Green Park Road, do not appear anywhere in the council's penalty figures, which suggests neither carries a camera. Stothert Avenue is the odd one out: it issued 821 penalties in 2021/22, then nothing at all for three straight years, then one in 2025/26 and 885 in the first four months of 2026/27 — a camera switched off and switched back on again.
Challenges & appeals — do they work?
Formal representations to the council, and appeals to the independent Traffic Penalty Tribunal. Drivers made 23,407 formal challenges over 4 years.
Year
Challenges
Upheld
Rejected
Success rate
To tribunal
2022/23
6,854
1,327
1,027
19%
98
2023/24
5,959
1,543
1,026
26%
64
2024/25
5,671
1,627
878
29%
59
2025/26
4,923
1,211
847
25%
38
The council's own figures show the share of challenges upheld went from 19% in 2022/23 to 25% in 2025/26 — so a well-grounded challenge is worth making. See our guide to appealing a bus lane PCN for the grounds that win.
The fine itself
A bus lane PCN from Bath & North East Somerset Council is £70, reduced to £35 if paid within 21 days. It is a civil penalty — there are no licence points. £70, halved to £35 if paid within 21 days, is the amount already recorded on every Bath lane page from the council's own bus lane pages. The FOI response did not restate it, but the money agrees: £3,459,309 collected against 109,885 penalties is £31.48 each, a little under the discounted rate, which is what a mix of discounted payments and penalties never paid produces.
What the council does not hold or publish
Income net of operating costs. The council gave the money it took month by month but nothing about what the nine cameras cost to run, so every income figure here is gross.
Challenges and appeals for 2021/22. The council marked that year "incomplete data" across the whole correspondence table, so the challenge figures on this page start in 2022/23 even though the penalty counts start a year earlier. It did give the tribunal figure for 2021/22: 134 appeals, the highest of the five years.
What happened at the tribunal. The council recorded how many appeals reached the Traffic Penalty Tribunal each year but said outcomes are "not held by contravention", so there is no way to tell from this response how many Bath drivers won.
The date enforcement began at each camera. Explicitly not held. The council pointed instead to its live bus lanes page for current information.
The bus lanes behind these cameras
Each of these locations has a full page with operating hours, permitted vehicles and the governing traffic order: