Buckinghamshire drivers fined over £130,000 at yellow box junctions in past year
Buckinghamshire Council issued 3,618 penalty charge notices (PCNs) at yellow box junctions
Drivers in Buckinghamshire were issued more than £130,000 in yellow box fines last year, new data reveals.
It comes as local authorities across England took on new enforcement powers.
Figures obtained by the RAC through Freedom of Information (FoI) requests show that Buckinghamshire Council issued 3,618 penalty charge notices (PCNs) at yellow box junctions in 2023, raising £139,798 in fines.
It was the third highest total outside of London and Cardiff, following Manchester and Kent’s Medway Council.
Until May 2022, only councils in London and Cardiff had the authority to issue PCNs for yellow box offences. Following a change in legislation, all English councils were given the option to apply for enforcement powers.
The RAC’s research, based on responses from English councils, found 36 yellow box junctions were enforced outside London and Cardiff in 2023, resulting in 32,748 PCNs and a total of £998,640 paid by drivers.
PCNs for yellow box offences typically cost £70, reduced to £35 if paid within 21 days.
Manchester City Council recorded the highest income, issuing 13,130 PCNs across six junctions, generating £446,706—nearly half of all fines raised nationally outside London and Cardiff. Medway Council was second, issuing 4,433 PCNs and collecting £145,162.
Among individual junctions, the Dennis Roundabout in Guildford, Surrey, was the single highest revenue generator, accounting for £81,445 in fines through 4,250 PCNs.
At the other end of the scale, Gloucestershire County Council issued just 30 PCNs, raising £945, while Leeds City Council issued 50 fines, totalling £605.
Commenting on the findings, RAC senior policy officer Rod Dennis said: "Very few people set out to deliberately flout the rules and get fined. The large number of penalties being dished out over a small number of locations and in a short space of time should send alarm bells ringing in council offices.
"It's vital box junctions are used in the correct places and are only as big as absolutely necessary. They must be fairly set up so that drivers don't find themselves stranded through no fault of their own."
Mr Dennis added that a yellow box which generates a small number of fines suggests it is "working as it should", and that this should be the ambition for councils rather than using enforcement as a "revenue-raising opportunity".
An earlier RAC-commissioned review of 100 of the highest-fining yellow box junctions in London and Cardiff found that 98 of the boxes were larger than necessary, with the average box being 50% bigger than required for preventing queueing vehicles from blocking crossing traffic.
In response to the new findings, Thomas Broom is Buckinghamshire Council’s Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Transport said: "We were one of the first councils to introduce enforcement for moving traffic offences when the powers were extended outside of London; we see a lot of congestion on our local roads particularly in and around Aylesbury and this is one tool in our armour to keep traffic moving.
"This is also about being able to enforce in instances such as where HGVs break restrictions.
"The number of fines and revenue collected is not in the council’s gift but directly relates to the number of people who commit these traffic offences and get a subsequent Penalty Charge Notice.
"We widely consult local residents before agreeing any locations for new camera, and when we put a new camera in we do operate a ‘warning first’ approach for the first six months so as to give local motorists time to become accustomed to any new locations."