Bus lane penalty: how to challenge a PCN and pay nothing

A camera catches you in a bus lane, turning where a sign bans it, or stopped in a yellow box junction — and a letter arrives demanding payment. That is a PCN, and challenging it costs nothing. Here is the procedure, step by step.

What is a PCN and who issues it?

A penalty charge notice is issued not by the police but by a local council, Transport for London or Dart Charge. They cover parking, moving traffic contraventions (bus lanes, banned turns, yellow box junctions) and unpaid congestion charge, low emission zone and Dartford Crossing charges.

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Two other documents are different. A fixed penalty notice (FPN) comes from the police, a council or the DVSA and follows another route. A private company's parking charge notice from a supermarket car park is not a public penalty at all and has its own appeal bodies.

How long do you have to pay?

Usually 28 days, with a 50% discount for early payment. The discount window depends on how the penalty was issued: 14 days for a windscreen ticket, Clean Air Zone and road user charging, and 21 days for camera-captured cases, including bus lanes and moving traffic. The exact date is printed on the notice itself — go by that.

How do you start a challenge?

If the notice was left on the windscreen, the first step is an informal challenge to the council. If it is accepted, you pay nothing. If it is rejected, you receive a notice to owner explaining how to pay or make formal representations.

If the notice arrived by post — as camera-issued bus lane penalties do — there is no informal stage, and you go straight to formal representations.

How do formal representations work?

You have 28 days from receiving the notice to owner. Representations go to whoever issued the penalty: the council, TfL (red routes, congestion charge, low emission zone) or Dart Charge. Explain your reasons in as much detail as possible and attach copies of evidence — photographs, tickets, letters, dashcam footage. If they are accepted, you pay nothing.

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What if they reject it?

You receive a notice of rejection, and from then you have 28 days to pay or appeal to an independent tribunal. Do neither, and the penalty increases.

Where do you appeal?

It depends where the penalty was issued.

London — London Tribunals, through the Environment and Traffic Adjudicators. They hear PCNs from London boroughs and TfL: parking, bus lanes, moving traffic, the London Lorry Control Scheme, littering and waste receptacles.

England outside London, and Wales — the Traffic Penalty Tribunal. It covers parking, bus lanes, moving traffic, littering from vehicles and Clean Air Zones, plus road user charging schemes: Dart Charge, Merseyflow, Oxford Congestion Charge and the Durham zone.

The Traffic Penalty Tribunal does not decide appeals for Scotland or Northern Ireland, fixed penalty notices, or private parking charge notices.

What does an appeal cost?

Nothing. Appealing is free, and you pay the penalty in full only if you lose. Adjudicators are lawyers independent of the authority that issued the PCN.

What happens if you simply ignore it?

After 28 days a charge certificate is issued and the amount rises by 50%, with another 14 days to pay. Ignore that too and the case goes to court for an order to pay, after which enforcement agents can be instructed and their fees are added to the debt.

Which arguments actually work?

A tribunal looks at facts and procedure, not at how hard the payment is. What counts is specific: the sign was missing or obscured, the markings were unreadable, you were passing an accident or letting an ambulance through, the vehicle had already been sold and you have the paperwork, the car was stolen and you have a crime reference, the notice has the wrong registration or location, or it was issued out of time. Every argument needs a document or a photograph behind it.

Checked against GOV.UK, London Tribunals and the Traffic Penalty Tribunal on 27 October 2026. Scotland and Northern Ireland follow different rules.