Manchester City Council collected £446,706 in fines revenue from vehicles entering yellow boxes across six sites in the City
A Freedom of Information request from the the RAC revealed it issued 13,130 PCNs for infringements last year, the equivalent of 36 a day
Up until May 2022, only councils in London and Cardiff could enforce yellow box junctions and other moving traffic contraventions, such as driving the wrong way up a one-way street.
Manchester now accounts for 49 per cent of all the revenue from yellow box fines outside London and Cardiff with the yellow box at the junction Kirkmanshulme Lane / Mount Road junction, Manchester M18 accounting for the raising of the most revenue
The other five locations where fines are being enforced are on Cheetham Hill Road / Elizabeth Street, Ashton Old Road and Chancellor Lane and Fairfield Street, the junction of Princess Parkway / Palatine Road, the junction of Great Ancoats Street and Oldham Road / Oldham Street and the Wilmslow Road / M56 junction 6
The Highway Code states drivers must not enter yellow boxes unless they can get through them without stopping; the only exception is if they are waiting to turn right but are prevented from doing so by oncoming traffic. The RAC has, however, previously uncovered problems with as many as nine-in-10 yellow boxes that councils were seeking to enforce.
Issues included drivers not being able to see where boxes end, boxes being larger than they need to be and ones extending beyond T-junctions
RAC senior policy officer Rod Dennis said: “Yellow boxes serve an important purpose in keeping traffic flowing at busy junctions. But with councils outside London and Cardiff enforcing them for the first time, it’s now more important than ever they do everything they can to ensure drivers don’t get unfairly caught out. After all, very few people set out to deliberately flout the rules and get fined.
“The enormously high number of penalty charge notices being raised in just a few council areas suggests things are awry. 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.
“As the data shows, not every council now enforcing yellow boxes is generating a huge amount of money from fines. In fact, a small number of fines – and a small number of appeals – indicates a yellow box that’s working as it should. This should be the ambition behind any yellow box that a council is looking to start enforcing, rather than being seen as a revenue-raising opportunity.
“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. Sadly, we are aware of several locations where this isn’t the case.
“We’ve previously expressed concern that drivers would get fined unnecessarily without the Government updating its box junction design guidance. This must clearly set out the locations where they can be used and, crucially, ensure they are sized correctly so as not to trap drivers unwittingly. With more local authorities likely to enforce yellow boxes in the coming months and years, it’s vitally important this happens.”
