About this bus gate
Bedford Borough Council calls this site a bus gate rather than a bus lane — a short length of road that only permitted vehicles may drive through, so there is no general traffic lane alongside it to move into. It operates 24 hours a day, every day, and camera enforcement dates from November 2021, making it the newest of the council's ten enforced sites.
Bedford publishes no operating hours for any of its bus lanes on its website, so the council's freedom of information answer is the only statement of them for this site. The council first gave the start date as November 2022 and corrected it to November 2021 in August 2026, which also explains how it came to report 1,267 penalties here in 2021/22, a year before enforcement was supposed to have begun.
The site is in no deposited traffic order: neither the 2014 consolidation order nor its 2021 amendment schedules Wilkinson Road, and no later order for it has been deposited with the Traffic Penalty Tribunal. The council names buses, motorcycles and emergency vehicles as permitted here, and confirms that pedal cycles are permitted wherever motorcycles are.
Taxis are not on its list for this site, unlike most of the borough's bus lanes. Bedford Borough Council's enforcement page describes a single static approved camera that it moves between bus lanes, but the penalty figures it released report tickets issued at nine Bedford sites concurrently in every year since 2021/22 — so treat any of them as capable of being enforced at any time.
The council publishes the £70 penalty; the £35 / 21-day discount is the statutory England default and is not stated on the council page.
Transcribed from Bedford Borough Council's responses to freedom of information requests RFI-08950, 10 August 2026, and RFI-09398, 21 August 2026, and checked against the sealed Bedford Borough Council (Bus Lanes and Bus Only Streets, The Borough of Bedford) Consolidation Order 2014, deposited with the Traffic Penalty Tribunal as document BF178.
Who can use it
- Buses
- Minibuses with 10 or more seats including the driver
- Motorcycles
- Pedal cycles
- Electrically assisted pedal cycles
- Emergency vehicles
Not permitted
- Cars
- Vans
- Lorries
Where exactly is it?
Wilkinson Road, Kempston. View on Google Maps →
Got a PCN from this camera?
Don't panic, and don't ignore it. Pay £35 within 21 days to halve the charge — or if the signage was unclear, the details are wrong, or you had a genuine reason to be in the lane, consider challenging it first. Our step-by-step appeal guide covers the grounds that actually win.
Frequently asked questions
What are the operating times of the Wilkinson Road bus gate?
The Wilkinson Road Bus Gate in Bedford operates 24 hours a day, every day. There is no time of day when general traffic may use it.
How much is the fine for driving through the Wilkinson Road bus gate?
Bedford Borough Council issues a Penalty Charge Notice of £70, reduced to £35 if paid within 21 days. There are no penalty points — it is a civil penalty.
Who is allowed to use the Wilkinson Road bus gate?
Buses, minibuses with 10 or more seats including the driver, motorcycles, pedal cycles, electrically assisted pedal cycles and emergency vehicles are permitted. Not permitted: cars, vans and lorries.
Can I appeal a PCN from the Wilkinson Road bus gate?
Yes, and it costs nothing. Make formal representations to Bedford Borough Council first — the authority that issued the PCN has to consider them before it can enforce the penalty. If Bedford Borough Council rejects them it must issue a Notice of Rejection, and you can then appeal free to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal. Its adjudicators are lawyers independent of the enforcing authority, and their decision is binding on both sides. This bus gate operates 24 hours, so "I was outside the operating times" is not open to you — the grounds that win here are that your vehicle was exempt, that the details on the PCN are wrong, or that the approach signage did not give enough warning before the point of no return. It is worth doing: Bedford Borough Council accepted 57% of the 745 formal challenges it received in 2025/26 (figures from its own FOI response). Note that paying the £35 discounted rate accepts liability and closes the case, so challenge before you pay.