How many bus lane Penalty Charge Notices Wigan Council issues, from which cameras, how much it raises, and how often challenges succeed — from data released under Freedom of Information (ref FOI 20283).
4,974
PCNs issued in 2 years2024/25–2025/26
£133,346
gross income, 2 yearsnet of costs not held
4,738
PCNs in 2025/26across 1 camera
59%
paid at the £35 discount2025/26
10%
of challenges upheld2025/26
This page reports data released by Wigan Council under the Freedom of Information Act (FOI 20283, responded 2026-08-21). 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
This is a camera in its first year, and the figures show it. Wigan issued 236 penalties in the whole of 2024/25 — all of them in March 2025, the first full month — and 4,738 in 2025/26, twenty times as many. The monthly counts the council supplied add up exactly to that total, which is a better internal check than most authorities' figures survive. They are also strikingly uneven: the camera caught 63 drivers in July 2025 and 85 in November, then 1,231 in December 2025, more than any other month and roughly a quarter of the year's penalties on its own. The council offered no explanation for the swing. Of the 4,738 drivers caught in 2025/26, 2,810 paid at the £35 discount — 59%, up from 34% in the camera's first month. One caveat on the money: the reported income works out at £26.93 for every penalty issued, and it cannot be rebuilt from the £35 and £70 rates exactly, so treat it as the cash the council banked in the year rather than the face value of the tickets.
Which cameras issue the most fines
Camera-enforced bus lane locations ranked by PCNs issued in 2025/26. The last column is the 2-year total.
Market Street in Atherton is the only camera-enforced bus gate Wigan operates, so every figure on this page comes from one short stretch of one town-centre street. The council originally answered this request by saying it does not enforce bus lanes or bus gates at all; asked to reconsider, it confirmed that it does, and supplied these figures. The restriction runs Monday to Saturday, 10.30am to 4.00pm, which is a narrow window — 33 hours a week — for a camera that has caught 4,974 drivers in its first thirteen months.
Challenges & appeals — do they work?
Formal representations to the council. Drivers made 434 formal challenges over 2 years.
Year
Challenges
Upheld
Rejected
Success rate
2024/25
0
0
0
—
2025/26
434
42
95
10%
The council upheld 10% of the challenges it received in 2025/26, so a well-grounded challenge is worth making. Drivers made 434 formal representations to the council in 2025/26, against none at all in the camera's first month. Only 137 of them had an outcome recorded when the council answered: 42 accepted and 95 rejected, with the remaining 297 still open. That is why the headline figure above reads 10% — it measures the 42 upheld against all 434 challenges made. Against the ones actually decided the rate is 31%, and the true figure will settle somewhere between the two as the backlog clears. Fourteen cases went on to the independent Traffic Penalty Tribunal, which the council did not date: nine were dismissed by the adjudicator, three the council chose not to contest, one was allowed, and one was still awaiting a decision. See our guide to appealing a bus lane PCN for the grounds that win.
The fine itself
A bus lane PCN from Wigan Council is £70, reduced to £35 if paid within 21 days. It is a civil penalty — there are no licence points. Wigan publishes no penalty figure for bus lane or moving traffic contraventions anywhere on its website — its penalty charges page covers parking only — so until this response the £70 shown on the lane page was the statutory England default rather than a figure the council had confirmed. It has now confirmed both the £70 charge and the £35 rate for payment within 21 days.
What the council does not hold or publish
Anything before February 2025. The request asked for five years, 2021/22 to 2025/26. The council answered that the first three years and most of the fourth are not applicable rather than withheld: the camera did not exist. Enforcement at Market Street began on 24 February 2025, and the first penalty charge notice was issued in March. Wigan has no earlier bus lane enforcement figures because it had no camera-enforced bus lane or bus gate to produce them.
The cost of running the camera. No operating or back-office cost was given, so the income above is gross. It is not what the council keeps.
When the tribunal appeals were heard. The council gave a single total for appeals to the independent Traffic Penalty Tribunal and how they were decided, but did not date them, so they cannot be split between the two years or shown in the table above. The totals are in the notes below.
The bus lanes behind these cameras
Each of these locations has a full page with operating hours, permitted vehicles and the governing traffic order: