Southwark Bus Lane Fines — PCNs by Camera

How many bus lane Penalty Charge Notices Southwark Council issues, from which cameras — from data released under Freedom of Information (ref 63131253).

315,332
PCNs issued in 5 years2021/22–2025/26
50,861
PCNs in 2025/26across 35 cameras
This page reports data released by Southwark Council under the Freedom of Information Act (63131253, 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 year
108,0942021/2246,6752022/2354,0052023/2455,6972024/2550,8612025/26

Southwark issued 108,094 bus lane PCNs in 2021/22 and fewer than half that in every year since. Almost all of the drop is two junctions: Dulwich Village northbound fell from 43,086 notices to 10,368, and Townley Road at Calton Avenue from 19,508 to 6,842, as drivers learned restrictions that had gone in shortly before. Camberwell Road's four cameras, which first appear in 2023/24, are the only significant new source of notices in the period.

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.

Location2025/26PCNs (2025/26)5-year total
Dulwich Village (Northbound) towards Pickwick Road10,36888,489
Townley Road junction Calton Avenue (Northbound)6,84255,148
Camberwell Road junction Boundary Lane (Southbound)5,38710,608
Manor Place junction Braganza Street3,25227,099
Burbage Road junction Turney Road (North Westbound)3,19123,257
Camberwell Road junction Bethwin Road (Northbound)2,7967,309
Burbage Road junction Gallery Road (North Westbound)2,48615,845
Carter Street junction Penrose Street2,46713,361
Manor Place junction Delverton Road1,3053,641
Bush Road (Northbound) towards Rotherhithe New Road1,2845,812
Lower Road (Northbound) towards Culling Road1,1684,799
Turney Road junction Burbage Road (North Eastbound)1,1009,645
Grange Road junction Tower Bridge Road1,0776,758
Crystal Palace Parade North Eastbound towards Sydenham Hill9351,785
Camberwell Road junction Bowyer Place (Northbound)8541,864
Lordship Lane Bus Lane7984,046
Lordship Lane junction Overhill Road6652,628
Southwark Bridge Road junction Thrale Street6461,996
Rotherhithe Old Road junction Cope Street6111,566
Champion Park (Westbound) towards Denmark Hill4583,421
Walworth Road Opposite Hampton Street (Southbound)4511,935
East Dulwich Road Westbound towards Spurling Road4254,103
Waterloo Road junction St George's Circus420917
Grove Vale Southbound to East Dulwich Road3652,488
Denmark Hill (Southbound) towards Daneville Road3561,021
Walworth Road junction Hampton Street (Northbound)3211,808
Dog Kennel Hill (Southbound) towards Quorn Road2381,897
Dog Kennel Hill (Northbound) towards Champion Hill1901,492
Southwark Bridge Road junction Union Street114204
Camberwell Road junction Bullace Row (Southbound)93480
Newington Causeway North of Avonmouth Street2438
Newington Causeway junction Gaunt Street77
Lower Road junction Culling Road04,984
Lower Road (Southbound) towards Chilton Grove0613
Lordship Lane0110

The council's list of 38 cameras includes three that its own published camera table classifies as something other than a bus restriction — a School Street camera on Friern Road and two Rye Lane pedestrian-zone cameras, 186 notices between them. Those are left out of the table above, though they remain inside the council's yearly totals. Eight further sites are signed as a restricted route rather than a bus lane; each is marked "buses, taxis and cycles only" on the council's camera list, so they are counted here as bus gates.

The fine itself

A bus lane PCN from Southwark Council is £160, reduced to £80 if paid within 14 days. It is a civil penalty — there are no licence points.

What the council does not hold or publish

  • What the cameras raise. No income figure is published here, because the council's own two answers cannot both be right. Southwark reported £4,018,367 of gross income across the five years and, separately, 211,430 penalties paid at the discounted rate. The London discount was £65 until 1 April 2025 and £80 after it, so those payments alone should have raised something above £13 million — more than three times the income figure. Asked to reconcile them, the council confirmed the £4,018,367 covers the full five years requested, said that both totals count bus gate penalties as well as bus lane ones, declined to split either figure by year or by bus lanes alone on the grounds that this would be a new request, and closed the case. The gap is still unexplained, so charting either number would state something we have good reason to think is wrong. The penalty counts and per-camera figures on this page come from a different part of the response and are unaffected.
  • Net income. Nor is there a net figure. The council holds no figure for the operating costs of bus lane enforcement alone, and pointed instead to its Parking Annual Monitoring Report 2024-25, which reports the Special Parking Account as a whole.
  • Enforcement start dates. The council gave no start date per camera, saying only that some sites have been enforced for more than five years and that later starts can be read off the monthly table. No date is asserted here.
  • Year-by-year challenges. Challenge outcomes were given only as five-year totals, not split by year: 61,601 formal representations, of which 6,698 were accepted and 54,903 refused, and 1,333 appeals to the tribunal — 214 allowed, 1,007 refused, 79 not contested and 33 withdrawn. That is roughly one representation accepted in every nine made.

The bus lanes behind these cameras

Each of these locations has a full page with operating hours, permitted vehicles and the governing traffic order: