Bath and North East Somerset Council have confirmed they will be refunding thousands of fines given to motorists who have driven through the controversial Dorchester Street bus gate.
The leader of the Council, Paul Crossley, has said that signs put in place to warn drivers of the new restrictions on Dorchester Street weren’t clear enough.
The announcement was made during a live radio interview on BBC Radio Bristol, just hours after the authority indicated that it would only be cancelling fines for people caught breaching the bus gate multiple times.
The decision by the Council comes following a huge public backlash against the bus gate, including a public petition which received over 3,000 signatures and a Facebook Group calling for the fines to be cancelled gaining over 4,000 followers.
In a statement released by Bath and North East Somerset Council, they said: “The Council – in response to public concerns about the Dorchester Street restrictions – has confirmed that it has gathered sufficient information to complete the trial scheme.
“The Council will be reviewing the outcome of the scheme before deciding how to proceed. However, it has confirmed that everybody issued with a Penalty Charge Notice on Dorchester Street to date will have it revoked and anyone that has already paid will have their money refunded.
Cllr Paul Crossley (Lib-Dem, Southdown), Leader of Council, said: “Although the scheme has made Dorchester Street safer for pedestrians, improved passenger bus journeys and made it easier for buses to keep to the timetable, the Council acknowledges that some motorists have found it difficult to adjust to the changes and alter their normal travel patterns. This is a unique scheme with a distinct set of issues.”
“The Council has listened to the views of the public as part of this experimental scheme and will be processing all refunds in due course.
“Please note there is no need to contact the Council directly – you will automatically receive a refund. Anybody who has already paid by card will have their payment refunded directly back onto their card, and we are working on issuing refunds for payments made in cash. All pending Penalty Charge Notices will be cancelled.”
Conservative councillors had warned the Council of the likely backlash from the new bus gate prior to its implementation and on Monday had called for all fines to be revoked and the trial halted.
Conservative Group Leader, Cllr Tim Warren, said: “The Liberal Democrats’ handling of the Dorchester Street Bus Gate has been a complete farce right from the beginning.
“They were warned time and again of the problems that would result from its introduction and the likely public backlash, yet ploughed on regardless. This is surely no way to run an authority.
“We welcome the fact that, after spending the past week defending the Bus Gate and denying there were any problems with the signage, the Council has finally seen sense and caved in to public pressure to refund all the fines. If only they’d listened before.
“Nevertheless, we still believe the Council should call an immediate halt to the Bus Gate trial so that the signage can be reviewed and the Council can consider whether it is now an idea worth pursuing.
“As it stands the Bus Gate trial, which was meant to run for another three months, will be completely worthless as we won’t be able to judge the impact on other roads due to the large number of drivers still using Dorchester Street.”
The bus gate trial on Dorchester Street was started in mid-January, and at one point in March, the Council were fining one driver every minute for using the controversial bus gate.
The Facebook page calling for fines to be cancelled was started last week, as was a petition. They can be found here.
