What happens if you don't pay your bus lane fine

If you don't pay your bus lane fine (Penalty Charge Notice), we can go through a series of processes to get the money from you.

If you have received a bus lane fine and want to pay it, please see our Pay a bus lane fine page.

If you want to challenge it, see Challenge a bus lane fine. If you have not paid or challenged the fine:

Charge Certificate

If you do not pay an outstanding fine within 28 days of receiving your PCN, we will send you a Charge Certificate.

The payment required will have increased by 50% when the Charge Certificate is issued.

Pay your bus lane fine online

Other ways to pay

automated payment line 0330 0884 785
telephone: 0191 384 6633

Challenging a Charge Certificate

You can't challenge a Charge Certificate.

Order for Recovery

We will send you an Order for Recovery if we don't receive payment within 14 days of the Charge Certificate being sent.

We will register the total fine as a debt at the Traffic Enforcement Centre (TEC) and is the same as a County Court Order. We will send you the appropriate form after the debt has been registered at the TEC, and you may submit a witness statement.

A sum to cover court costs will be added to the fine.

Witness statement

A witness statement is an oath sworn by someone who has a debt registered against them. You may only make a witness statement if you:

did not receive a PCN
made a representation to us but did not receive a Notice of Rejection
appealed to an Adjudicator but did not receive a response from the Traffic Penalty Tribunal
have already paid the fine

You must submit the witness statement by the date shown on the Order for Recovery. If you need more time to submit it, you may apply for it, using a PE2 - application to file a statutory declaration out of time form. The form can only be used to extend time for submitting the statement, not to dispute the fine.

Proceedings for contempt of court may be brought against you if you make, or cause to be made, a false statement in an application without an honest belief in its truth.

Warrant of Control

We will send you a Warrant of Control if you don't pay the debt or file a witness statement within 21 days of the Order of Recovery being sent.

A Warrant of Control allows us to recover an unpaid fine using certificated enforcement agents, authorised by the County Court to recover the debt(s).

The enforcement agents will add their charges to the outstanding debt.