Central Bedfordshire Bus Lane Fines — PCNs, Income & Appeals
How many bus lane Penalty Charge Notices Central Bedfordshire Council issues, from which cameras, how much it raises, and how often challenges succeed — from data released under Freedom of Information (ref 11352505).
10,928
PCNs issued in 5 years2021/22–2025/26
£308,943
gross income, 5 yearsnet of costs not held
1,488
PCNs in 2025/26across 2 cameras
75%
paid at the £35 discount2025/26
10%
of challenges upheld2025/26
This page reports data released by Central Bedfordshire Council under the Freedom of Information Act (11352505, responded 2026-08-18). Figures are the council's own. BusLaneCheck is independent and not affiliated with the council. The source documents are linked at the foot of this page. Compare every UK authority →
Bus lane PCNs issued per yearGross PCN income per year
This is an authority whose enforcement is shrinking, not growing. Venus Avenue issued 3,515 penalties in 2021/22 and 1,395 in 2025/26 — a 60% fall over five years, with income dropping in step from £101,931 to £42,897. That is the pattern of a bus gate that drivers have learned rather than one being enforced harder, and it is a marked change from the site's early years, when Venus Avenue alone generated more than half of every penalty charge notice the council issued and prompted a councillor to question whether the signs were clear enough. Grovebury Road has started far quieter, at 93 penalties in six months.
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.
Central Bedfordshire enforces just two locations in the whole authority, which makes it one of the smallest camera operations on this site. Venus Avenue on the Kings Reach estate in Biggleswade has been running since 4 July 2019 and has produced all but 93 of the penalties in this table. Grovebury Road in Leighton Buzzard is the newer of the two, though the council has given us two different start dates for it — 23 September 2025 in its camera list and 7 May 2025 in a later response — so the period its 93 penalties cover is somewhere between six and eleven months. The bus gate order itself has been in force since 12 September 2023. One thing worth stating plainly, because local reporting has muddled it: the council does not use the name "Roman Gate" for any of its sites. A 2024 news report described a developer-funded camera at a bus gate on the Roman Gate housing development, which sits off Grovebury Road, but the council has not confirmed the two are the same scheme.
Challenges & appeals — do they work?
Formal representations to the council, and appeals to the independent Traffic Penalty Tribunal. Drivers made 2,224 formal challenges over 5 years.
Year
Challenges
Upheld
Rejected
Success rate
To tribunal
2021/22
1,134
109
178
10%
12 (4 allowed / 2 dismissed)
2022/23
351
51
102
15%
8 (2 allowed / 6 dismissed)
2023/24
300
31
81
10%
16 (1 allowed / 5 dismissed)
2024/25
250
24
71
10%
21 (5 allowed / 9 dismissed)
2025/26
189
18
53
10%
28 (4 allowed / 12 dismissed)
The council's own figures show the share of challenges upheld went from 10% in 2021/22 to 10% in 2025/26 — so a well-grounded challenge is worth making. Challenging a penalty here has become steadily less likely to succeed, and the numbers are small enough that the trend is worth knowing before you spend time on it. Representations fell from 1,134 in 2021/22 to 189 in 2025/26, and the share the council accepted fell too. In most years it rejects around three times as many as it accepts. The interesting move is at the next stage: appeals to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal more than doubled over the same period, from 12 to 28, so a rising number of drivers are pushing past the council's own refusal — though the tribunal dismissed three times as many as it allowed in 2025/26. Note that accepted and rejected do not add up to the number received in any year; the council says the rest were withdrawn or not contested. See our guide to appealing a bus lane PCN for the grounds that win.
The fine itself
A bus lane PCN from Central Bedfordshire Council is £70, reduced to £35 if paid within 14 days. It is a civil penalty — there are no licence points. Central Bedfordshire does not publish the bus lane penalty amount, but its own figures imply the usual English rate: the income it reports divided by the penalties it says were paid at the discounted rate lands within a few pounds of £35 in every one of the five years. Its bus gate order confirms the discount runs for 14 days and the full charge for 28.
What the council does not hold or publish
Income net of operating costs. Central Bedfordshire holds gross income only. In its own words, "I am not able to supply the amount net of operating costs", so the money below is what the council took in before the cost of the cameras, signs and back office is deducted.
Income split between the two bus gates. The income figures are authority-wide. Because Venus Avenue accounted for every penalty until September 2025 and 94% of them in 2025/26, almost all of this money came from that one bus gate — but the council did not break it down, so no per-site figure is shown.
The bus lanes behind these cameras
Each of these locations has a full page with operating hours, permitted vehicles and the governing traffic order: