Bedford Bus Lane Fines — PCNs, Income & Appeals

Bedford issued 69,790 bus lane penalties across the five years, peaking at 16,134 in 2023/24 and falling to 12,424 in 2025/26. Horne Lane alone accounts for 31,358 of them — 45% of every bus lane ticket the borough issued — and although its annual count has come down by roughly a quarter since 2023/24 it remains the single place in Bedford a driver is most likely to be caught. Wilkinson Road is second at 12,333. At the other end, the Kempston Road camera issued 58 penalties in five years, and none at all in 2021/22. The share of drivers paying at the discounted rate has slipped steadily, from 72% in 2021/22 to 64% in 2025/26. One caveat on the income line: in the first three years the number of penalties paid at the £35 discount, multiplied by £35, comes to more than the income the council reported — £325,395 of discounted payments against £174,669 of income in 2021/22. The income figures are most likely money actually banked in each year, or net of the cost of running the cameras, rather than the face value of the tickets issued, but the council did not say which, so they are reproduced here as supplied.

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.

Bedford broke its penalty figures down by site for every one of the five years, which is more than most councils supply, and it has since explained the two things in the table that did not line up. There are nine rows here against the ten bus lanes and bus gates the council names elsewhere: "Wixams" appears in the table and in none of its lane lists, while Bedford Road in Kempston is named as an enforced bus lane but has no row of its own. In a follow-up response in August 2026 the council confirmed that the Wixams row is the Bedford Road camera at Wilstead — its traffic order schedules that same stretch as Bedford Road, Wixams, after the development it serves — and that Bedford Road in Kempston runs into Kempston Road in Bedford, with the camera on the Kempston Road stretch, so no Bedford Road tickets are missing from the totals. The same response corrected the enforcement start date for Wilkinson Road from November 2022 to November 2021, which resolves the one figure here that could not previously be right: the council reported 1,267 penalties at Wilkinson Road in 2021/22, a year before the date it had originally given.

Challenges & appeals — do they work?

Formal representations to the council. Drivers made 3,944 formal challenges over 5 years.

The council's own figures show the share of challenges upheld went from 46% in 2021/22 to 57% in 2025/26 — so a well-grounded challenge is worth making. Formal challenges peaked at 1,024 in 2023/24. The council has upheld roughly half of them every year, and in the last two years it accepted more than it rejected — 422 of 745 in 2025/26. It did not separate out how many drivers went on to the independent Traffic Penalty Tribunal, so these figures cover the council stage only. See our guide to appealing a bus lane PCN for the grounds that win.