Manchester in fast lane with penalties

25 October 2006
 
City and town centre bus lane enforcement across the country has moved one step closer after Manchester began what it claimed was the first English scheme outside of the capital.
Manchester City Council together with Bath & North East Somerset, Brighton & Hove, Hampshire, Nottingham, Reading and Sheffield formed the Bus Lane Adjudication Service Joint Committee in the summer, to press the Lord Chancellor’s office for consent to appoint bus lane adjudicators.
Manchester, the lead authority for the National Parking Appeals Service, agreed then to fill the same role for bus lane enforcement and has now started full enforcement last week. The enforcement will be carried out on the same basis as it is in London, with a Smart car fitted with cameras and fixed CCTV.
Surveys suggest 30 to 70% of vehicles in Manchester’s bus lanes are there illegally and 10 ‘hot spots’ have been identified.
The city council had planned to begin enforcement from September, but launched the scheme one month later, after a publicity campaign allowed a ‘warning-only’ enforcement period.
Penalty charges have been set at £60 for ‘maximum deterrence’, and consistency with Manchester’s parking fines.
A spokesman said: ‘Each case will be assessed on its own merits. However, the guiding principles for enforcement will be that the vehicle has sought benefit over other road-users by using the bus lane, or causing a congestion problem, or causing a bus to divert out of the bus lane.’
Enforcement is likely to focus on the Chorlton bus corridor to improve bus times, encourage greater use of buses, and also improve the safety of pedestrians and cyclists. The other authorities are also pushing ahead with schemes, but do not have the same infrastructure, as Manchester, and so are some way behind in having operational schemes.

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