Visitors pay 67% of camera fines in York.

The Council has revealed the home location of the drivers caught by their ANPR “invisible policeman” cameras.

A total of 8197 separate addresses have received notifications of penalty charges. Of these 5481 (67%) are addresses outside the YO postcode area.

Coppergate bus lane enforcement plans Click to enlarge

As expected about 70% of the penalty notices issued for the new Coppergate restrictions were sent to local York drivers.

On Lendal Bridge, the reverse was the case with 22% sent to York drivers and 78% to visitors.

The question was asked at last weeks Council meeting and Cllr Merrett’s answer was:

To the Cabinet Member for Transport, Planning and Sustainability from Cllr Runciman: “Could the Cabinet Member provide a breakdown of the ANPR penalty notices issued since the Lendal Bridge closure and Coppergate restrictions by residents living inside York and residents living outside York?”

• “Coppergate;

1852 individual postcodes recorded.

1280 ‘YO’ postcodes & 572 non-‘YO’ postcodes. This equates to a 70%-30% split

• Lendal Bridge:

6340 individual postcodes recorded.

1436 ‘YO’ postcodes & 4904 non-‘YO’ postcodes. This equated to a 22.5%- 77.5% split.”

York Council confirms income from Lendal Bridge and Coppergate fines

The Council has belatedly published the answers to question tabled last week about the fine income that they are generating through the use of ANPR ”invisible policemen” cameras in the City.

The Council is paying its Northampton based contractors £7 to process each Penalty Charge Notice (PCN).

The Council says

Lendal

02-08 Sept – 1675 PCNs issued (4 days enforcement, commenced Wed)

09-15 Sept – 2015 PCNs issued (6 days enforcement, because of the Skyride event)

16-22 Sept – 1766 PCNs issued (5 days enforcement, cameras updating)
TOTAL 5456

Accurate actual income into CYC is not available at this stage due to the short time the system has been operational. Based on £23 / PCN (the £30 ‘early payment’ value of the PCN minus the processing and operating costs), this would equate to a potential income of £125,500.

Coppergate

15-18 August -1085 PCNs issued (4 days enforcement, commenced Wednesday)

19-25 August – 1741 PCNs issued

26-01 Sept – 880 PCNs issued

02-08 Sept – 850 PCNs issued

09-15 Sept – 841 PCNs issued (6 days enforcement, because of the Skyride event)

16-22 Sept -324 PCNs issued (5 days enforcement, cameras updating and gas works commenced)

TOTAL 5721

Accurate actual income into CYC is not available at this stage due to the short time the system has been operational. Based on £23 / PCN (the £30 ‘early payment’ value of the PCN minus the processing and operating costs). This would equate to a potential income of £131,500.

Lendal Bridge and Coppergate penalty income admitted by York Council. 11,177 fined in September!

The Council have belatedly published details of the numbers of drivers who have fallen foul of the number plate recognition cameras installed on Lendal Bridge and in Coppergate.

In total during August and September 11,177 drivers were sent penalty charge notices.

This would generate over £600,000 in income for the Council in just 5 weeks.

click to enlarge

Some fines might be reduced for drivers who pay up quickly or who successfully appeal against the notice.

The penalty charge notice numbers are divided fairly evenly between Coppergate and Lendal Bridge although the figures for the latter are only for 3 weeks.

But it is a staggering amount and confirmation of the inadequacy of the signage marking the new restrictions on Coppergate as well as the trial day time closure of Lendal Bridge to private motorists.

The data is contained in an obscure part of the Council web site and has not been officially publicised.

Apparently the web page will be updated monthly.

The figures show no sign of a downturn in the numbers of motorists being caught, so the Councils annual income from the cameras is likely to be several millions each year.

It is much more than would have been raised by putting a congestion charge on the bridge and they do suggest that “road pricing” is what the Labour Council really wants to introduce next.

The publication of the information follows the tabling of a question on the subject at last weeks Council meeting by a Liberal Democrat Councillor.

Detailed information, on the reductions in the number of shoppers accessing the City centre, is still awaited.

A report on the first month of the trial, previously published by the Council, admitted that there had been no significant improvement in journey times for buses – one of the major objectives of the trial

Visitor hit by “double fine whammy” on York Coppergate trip.

A visitor from Denmark faced a £66 charge after falling foul of the Coppergate ANPR cameras.

He quickly paid the fine to gain the £30 discount but later received a supplementary bill from the hire car firm that he had used. They wanted another £30 plus £6 VAT to cover the costs of processing an enquiry about who was driving their vehicle.

The tourist explains that on a dark and wet evening in September he and his family decided to use their hire car to get from their guest house to a City centre restaurant.

Fine notice

They were caught on camera at 18:50pm – just 10 minutes before the restriction ends.

They did not see the signs (the new hours of operation of the restriction are in a small font) and – with some justification – feel that the invisible policeman (ANPR cameras) method of enforcement is unfair.

He suggests a rising barrier be used.

Others have argued for an amnesty for “first offenders”

Visitors see the use of ANPR cameras as a money making trap which will damage the City’s reputation.

In a separate development, The Council Leader last night accepted that the numbers of people accessing the City centre is in decline.

He was asked to publish footfall figures for the last couple of months and compare them with 12 months ago.

He hasn’t done so yet but he claimed to have put on line graphs which show City centre visitors numbers falling over an extended period of time.

Heavy handed enforcement of traffic restrictions – like the above – can only accelerate that decline.

NB. Questions on the amount that the Council has collected in fine revenue from ANPR cameras in Coppergate and Lendal Bridge were not answered at last night’s Council meeting.

The responsible Labour Councillor is being given a week to respond in writing before a Freedom of Information request is submitted.

£3 million a year fines income forecast for Lendal and Coppergate drivers?

Questions tabled for the Council meeting on 10th October will finally reveal the scale of fine income that the Council is now getting from drivers who use Lendal Bridge and Coppergate during restricted hours.

Unconfirmed figures, leaked by the Council, suggest that over 1000 drivers a WEEK are still using Lendal Bridge during restricted hours.

If everyone who received a penalty notice paid £60 then it would add a whopping £3 million a year to Council coffers in addition to income from Coppergate.

A private briefing to journalists accepts the 1000 figure but says that many drivers will successfully appeal, while others will quickly stomp up the £30 discounted rate.

Questions on Lendal Bridge and Coppergate tabled for Council meeting on 10th October click to enlarge

Officials admit that bus reliability has not changed much since the Lendal Bridge closure, while traffic congestion is also much as expected.

The briefing comes from the same team that has yet to answer questions tabled during a “twitter debate” in early September. They promised then to answer all submitted questions and add them to the Councils web site.

They have singularly failed to do so.

So embarrassed are Council Leaders, with the scale of the contraventions, that they are floating the idea of an amnesty for first offenders.

A kind of yellow card system!

But there will be nowhere to hide on 10th October.

Not only will the scale of the PR disaster become apparent, but the impact on City centre trade will be revealed.

A question to the Council Leader, from Liberal Democrat Group Leader Keith Aspden, asks for daily figures from the Councils City centre footfall cameras since the beginning of August.

The improving economic situation suggests that there should be a major increase compared to last year.

We will see

A list of all the questions submitted for the meeting can be seen here.
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