Embattled council bosses could have to refund more than £1 million in bus gate fines to drivers if they are forced to scrap the system in court.
Aberdeen City Council rolled out the controversial measures in August 2023, banning drivers from Bridge Street, Market Street and Guild Street.
The system, designed to free up roads for buses, was put in place under an “experimental traffic order”.
Despite hundreds of objections and the heartfelt pleas of hard-hit businesses, the bus gates were made permanent in January.
Led by clothes shop owner Norman Esslemont, traders have since united to battle the council on this decision.
He has amassed more than £55,000 to take the local authority to court.
Mr Esslemont hired Edinburgh-based Alasdair Sutherland to fight the legal challenge on their behalf.
According to the legal eagle, if the decision to make the bus gates in January is found to be unlawful they will need to be “dismantled”.
And if it is found that the council acted improperly by making them permanent at the turn of 2025, then any motorist slapped with a fine since then could be refunded.
We wanted to find out how much this could potentially be, and Aberdeen City Council pointed me towards their online statistics…
So, just how much could Aberdeen City Council refund?
Looking at the numbers on the website, I noticed that March had drastically fewer fines than any other month.
There were only 39 penalties counted for the three bus gates across the month.
But after asking the local authority about this, a spokeswoman confirmed the figures were “incorrect” and had been corrected.
Upon looking again, I tallied them up to 4,170 – meaning they had initially missed 4,131 fines from their own data.
With the updated figures, the total number of fines sent out between January and May 8 (which is as far as the council’s data goes for now) reaches 11,973 fines.
Last summer, the charges increased from £60 to £100, reduced to £50 if paid within two weeks.
And so, the fines add up to a mammoth total of £1,197,300 for just those 127 days.
Even if everyone paid their fine within the two weeks, reducing the price to £50, that would still equate to £598,650.
It is important to note that because these figures only go up to May 8, they could soon change.
And Mr Sutherland suggested a verdict on the court proceedings might not be issued until November…
If the fines continue to be dished out at this rate, it will mean this number could more than double by the end of the year.
How much cash has been generated by the bus gates so far?
The three bus gates were officially switched on in August 2023, but the council allowed a 40 day “grace period”.
Meaning any unwitting driver caught entering one of the no-go zones was sent a warning letter instead.
However, this grace period ended on November 8, 2023, and 78,148 notices have been sent to anyone breaking the road rules since.
Taking into account that the penalties were originally £60 until May 2024, that’s an incredible £6,631,640 in fines being sent out.
But according to the local authority’s data, only £2,862,856.92 has been paid so far.
Unfortunately, anyone who was left out of pocket while the bus gates were in their “experimental” phase will not be able to secure a refund, though.
The cash generated from the bus gates is ringfenced for infrastructural projects.
Aberdeen City Council said it was “unable to comment on any ongoing legal proceedings”.
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