Sandwell Bus Lane Fines — PCNs, Income & Appeals

Sandwell's bus lane penalties fell by a third between 2021/22 and 2024/25, from 28,843 to 17,832, then rose again in 2025/26 — but only because a new camera opened. Strip Grove Lane out and the older three cameras issued 15,977 penalties in 2025/26, the lowest total in the five years. Hagley Road West in Oldbury is the borough's quietest-looking road on paper and its second-biggest earner, while New Street in West Bromwich has been the single largest source of penalties every year, never dropping below 8,700. Income has been flatter than the penalty count, holding between £540,000 and £643,000 a year, because the cameras that closed were the ones catching drivers who never paid.

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.

Sandwell's freedom of information response names five camera-enforced locations — two more than the council's own website lists. Four are enforcing today and appear in the table: New Street, Hagley Road West and Walsall Road, all long-standing, plus Grove Lane in Smethwick, which went live on 2 January 2026 and issued 3,134 penalties in its first three months. The fifth, a bus lane at Blackheath, is not in the table because it has no penalty history at all: the council says enforcement there starts on 1 September 2026, with a six-week run of warning notices, so a driver caught there in autumn 2026 may receive a warning letter rather than a penalty. Sandwell also confirmed it is "not aware of any other location" beyond these five, which is as close to a complete list as the council will give. One date in the original response was impossible — New Street's enforcement start was given as 24 August 2026, six days after the letter was written, while the same spreadsheet recorded New Street penalties continuously from April 2021. Asked about it, the council confirmed the year was a typing error and that enforcement in fact began on 24 August 2016; that corrected date is the one shown here. The clarifications come from a second request, reference FOI-866363316, answered on 18 August 2026.

Challenges & appeals — do they work?

Formal representations to the council, and appeals to the independent Traffic Penalty Tribunal. Drivers made 12,119 formal challenges over 5 years.

The council's own figures show the share of challenges upheld went from 72% in 2021/22 to 70% in 2025/26 — so a well-grounded challenge is worth making. Sandwell accepts a strikingly high share of the challenges it receives — around 70% in every one of the five years, far above most authorities on this site. If you think your penalty was wrong here, the borough's own record suggests it is well worth making a formal representation. Appeals that go all the way to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal are rare, 52 to 72 a year, and roughly a third of those succeed. See our guide to appealing a bus lane PCN for the grounds that win.