£360,000 from bus lane fines could fund Aberdeen LEZ cameras

The council hopes the cash from bus lane rulebreakers could cover costs of running the city's Low Emission Zone cameras until it "becomes self-sustaining"

By Kieran Beattie

May 4 2023, 10:00 am

Three new bus gates are expected to go live this week. Image: Kami Thomson/DC Thomson.

Bus lane fines worth £360,000 could be used to pay for cameras for Aberdeen’s Low Emission Zone (LEZ).

Aberdeen City Council generates huge sums of money every year by fining drivers for breaking the rules in its various bus lanes and bus gates.

But all of this cash legally must be spent on transport or infrastructure projects.

These can include the likes of bus shelter replacements or school path improvements.

In the past financial year, the council allocated a whopping £1,798,000 of bus lane fine money for all sorts of initiatives.

A bus lane with a car in it on King Street in Aberdeen. — A bus lane on King Street. Anyone breaking bus lane or bus gate rules in Aberdeen can face a fine. Image: Kenny Elrick/DC Thomson

This includes £360,000 “to cover the management of the LEZ enforcement”.

However, because enforcement will not start for the low pollution zone until next summer, none of this £360,000 has been spent… yet.

How would the council spend £360,000 on the Aberdeen LEZ?

An official map of the Aberdeen LEZ. Image: Aberdeen City Council

The Aberdeen LEZ technically started in May last year, but you wouldn’t know it walking around the city centre today.

This is because actual enforcement — when people will start being hit with £60 fines if they drive a non-compliant vehicle into the zone — won’t commence until June 1, 2024.

Even though there’s just over 12 months until people start getting fined, there are today still no signs, no cameras, and in fact nothing whatsoever to show people where Aberdeen’s LEZ actually is.

But before enforcement starts, all sorts of signs will need to be erected showing the boundaries of the zone, and automatic number plate recognition cameras will need put in place to catch rule-breakers.

A view looking into the LEZ on Holburn Street, with a mocked-up sign showing where the zone starts. Image: Kami Thomson/Michael McCosh/DC Thomson

The £360,000 generated by bus lane fines has been earmarked with the intention of spending it on the management of LEZ system’s cameras.

But, a council report says this money would only be required “until the scheme becomes self-sustaining”.

This means the council hopes the £360,000 will cover the management of the LEZ cameras until the zone itself generates enough fines from high-pollution vehicles to pay for its own operation.

But government cash could end up replacing bus lane money

However, the council may not necessarily need to raid the bus lane fine coffers for this cost.

It is understood the local authority is still waiting to find out how much money it will be allocated for the 2023/24 financial year by the Scottish Government specifically for operating the LEZ.

Depending on how much cash the council ends up getting, it may not need to use all, or any of the £360,000, and this money would be returned to the bus lane fine pot for other infrastructure projects.