How many bus lane Penalty Charge Notices Gateshead Council issues, from which cameras, how much it raises, and how often challenges succeed — from data released under Freedom of Information (ref FOI 68380).
147,484
PCNs issued in 5 years2021/22–2025/26
£5.97m
gross income, 5 yearsnet of costs not held
22,412
PCNs in 2025/26across 4 cameras
2%
of challenges upheld2025/26
This page reports data released by Gateshead Council under the Freedom of Information Act (FOI 68380, responded 2026-08-05). 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
The pattern here is driven almost entirely by Askew Road. It issued 29,896 penalties in 2021/22 — more than the whole borough managed in any later year — then collapsed to 1,370 in 2022/23 before returning to around 10,000 a year, which is the shape of a camera going out of service rather than of driver behaviour changing. Borough-wide, penalties fell from 49,478 to 22,412 across the five years and income from £1.55m to £993,475. High West Street is the one site moving the other way, roughly doubling since 2022/23 to 8,379. It also shows the clearest sign of a bedding-in period: the council recorded 8,215 penalties there in 2021/22 but nil income, which is what a warning-notice launch looks like. Challenges are worth reading carefully — the council received between 4,034 and 8,257 formal representations a year but records accepting only 83 to 188 of them, and in 2025/26 it reports 52 appeals to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal against 171 tribunal outcomes, so the two figures are counted on different bases and the appeal success rate cannot be calculated reliably from them.
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.
Gateshead camera-enforces four sites, and the council confirmed the full current list with start dates: South Shore Road bus gate from December 2019, Askew Road bus lane from October 2020, High West Street bus gate from August 2021, and High Street (Northbound) bus lane from June 2026. High Street is too new to appear in the figures above — it started after the last year reported — and it is also the site that resolves a naming muddle, since the council's published list and an earlier FOI called the same lane by two different names. One historic site appears in the data and nowhere else: the A184 from Whitemare Pool to Heworth Roundabout issued 69 penalties across April, May and June 2021 and never again, and it is absent from the council's current camera list, so it is treated here as a short-lived or trial deployment rather than a live bus lane. BusLaneCheck lists nine Gateshead bus lanes; the five not named above are recorded as not camera-enforced, on the strength of the council's own list.
Challenges & appeals — do they work?
Formal representations to the council, and appeals to the independent Traffic Penalty Tribunal. Drivers made 30,304 formal challenges over 5 years.
Year
Challenges
Upheld
Rejected
Success rate
To tribunal
2021/22
6,804
188
146
3%
231 (123 allowed / 15 dismissed)
2022/23
4,034
137
157
3%
132 (88 allowed / 8 dismissed)
2023/24
6,766
110
198
2%
157 (82 allowed / 21 dismissed)
2024/25
8,257
118
177
1%
110 (46 allowed / 53 dismissed)
2025/26
4,443
83
171
2%
52 (63 allowed / 108 dismissed)
The council's own figures show the share of challenges upheld went from 3% in 2021/22 to 2% 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 Gateshead Council is £70, reduced to £35 if paid within 21 days. It is a civil penalty — there are no licence points. The FOI response did not restate the penalty. £70, halved to £35 within 21 days, is the amount already recorded on all nine Gateshead lane pages from the council's own bus lane enforcement page, and the money reported is consistent with it: the council collected between £31 and £46 for every PCN it issued, which sits below the £70 ceiling as it must.
What the council does not hold or publish
PCNs paid at the discounted rate. The council stated that this is not readily available because it has no report that returns the data, so there is no way to say what share of drivers paid £35 rather than £70.
Cost of running the cameras. No operating-cost figure was given, so the income here is gross. It is not what the council keeps.
What happened to most challenges. The accepted and rejected figures do not add up to the number of representations received — 334 of 6,804 in 2021/22, and a similar shortfall every year — so the council's own categories account for only a small fraction of the challenges it records receiving. The outcome of the rest is not stated.
The bus lanes behind these cameras
Each of these locations has a full page with operating hours, permitted vehicles and the governing traffic order: