How many bus lane Penalty Charge Notices Liverpool City Council issues, from which cameras, how much it raises — from data released under Freedom of Information (ref FOI-2026-2138).
99,879
PCNs issued in 5 years2021/22–2025/26
£3.42m
gross income, 5 yearsnet of costs not held
43,534
PCNs in 2025/26across 2 cameras
73%
paid at the £35 discount2025/26
This page reports data released by Liverpool City Council under the Freedom of Information Act (FOI-2026-2138, responded 2026-08-19). 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
Liverpool issued no bus lane penalties at all in 2021/22 — its first camera did not switch on until September 2022 — and 43,534 in 2025/26. Almost the whole of that last jump is one new camera: Irvine Street at Mount Vernon Road began enforcing in May 2025 and caught 24,969 drivers in its first year, more than half the city's total. Gross income tracked the same curve, from £330,562 in 2022/23 to £1,452,421 in 2025/26.
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.
Two cameras, and that is the whole of Liverpool's bus lane enforcement. Ranelagh Street's bus gate, on the westbound approach at Great Charlotte Street, has been running since 20 September 2022 and has issued 74,910 penalties; its 2025/26 figure of 18,565 is its first annual fall. Irvine Street at Mount Vernon Road, in Edge Hill, opened on 19 May 2025. The council's two other published bus lane restrictions, both on Strand Street, are signed but have no camera. Liverpool separately enforces the Lime Street bus lane and the Lime Street bus link with ANPR, but under its moving-traffic-offence powers rather than as bus lanes, so those penalties are not counted in these figures. A separate freedom of information response, FOI-2026-2017 of 20 August 2026, confirms that these two are the whole of the city’s bus lane camera enforcement and sets out the traffic order behind each of them, which is quoted on the two lane pages.
The fine itself
A bus lane PCN from Liverpool City Council is £70, reduced to £35 if paid within 21 days. It is a civil penalty — there are no licence points.
What the council does not hold or publish
A challenge success rate we can stand behind. The council gave the number of challenges and the number of decisions, and the two do not reconcile. In 2025/26 it recorded 5,443 penalties challenged but only 748 cancelled and 1,080 rejected, leaving roughly two thirds of the challenges with no recorded outcome; the same gap runs through every year (1,365 challenged against 553 decided in 2022/23, 1,958 against 912 in 2023/24, 3,194 against 922 in 2024/25). The council also notes that its figures are grouped by the date a decision was made rather than the date of the contravention. Publishing 748 out of 5,443 as a success rate would understate it by an unknown margin, so no rate is shown here. Separately, appeals that reached the Traffic Penalty Tribunal were few: over the five years 29 were allowed, 123 dismissed and 63 went uncontested by the council. A follow-up request asking what the unaccounted challenges became is outstanding.
The cost of running the cameras. The revenue figures are gross. Liverpool was asked for a figure net of the cost of running the enforcement and did not give one, so nothing here says what the council clears after paying for the cameras, the back office and the debt recovery.
Anything below the two camera sites. Liverpool has only two camera-enforced bus lane locations, so there is no deeper breakdown to withhold. The council publishes two further bus lane restrictions, both on Strand Street, and confirmed under this request that neither has a camera on it.
The bus lanes behind these cameras
Each of these locations has a full page with operating hours, permitted vehicles and the governing traffic order: