Buckinghamshire Switches On 14 New Traffic Cameras This Month With £70 Fines

Drivers across Buckinghamshire face a new wave of camera enforcement this month, with the council switching on cameras at 14 fresh locations that will catch banned turns, yellow box blocking, bus lane misuse and overweight lorries. Get caught more than once and the penalty is a £70 fine, reduced to £35 if you pay within 21 days.

Buckinghamshire Council already ran cameras at a handful of sites after taking on moving traffic powers in 2023. This expansion pushes enforcement into Aylesbury, High Wycombe, Chesham, Iver, Padbury and Denham, each site chosen after residents and businesses flagged it as a place where drivers routinely ignore the rules. If you drive through any of these towns, it pays to know exactly where the cameras sit and what they are watching for.

Where the 14 New Cameras Are and What They Catch

In Aylesbury, cameras cover the A41 Exchange Street, where a right turn into the Waitrose car park and a right turn out of the Exchange Street car park are both banned. The town also gains enforcement on the Oxford Road bus lane and a yellow box junction on the same road.

High Wycombe takes three of the new sites. Cameras watch the A40 London Road bus lane and yellow box junctions on Oxford Road and Amersham Hill. In Chesham, one camera enforces a banned right turn from Bellingdon Lane onto St Marys Way, the A416, while another covers a no entry restriction on Moor Road.

Iver sees a different kind of enforcement. Cameras on Bangors Road North and Bangors Road South police a 7.5 tonne weight limit, catching heavy goods vehicles that use the route as a shortcut rather than for loading or access. Padbury gains a no entry camera on Lower Way, and Denham picks up prohibited right turns on Oxford Road and the A412 North Orbital Road. Additional signs go up at every location to warn drivers that a camera is present.

Cabinet Member for Transport Steven Broadbent said all 14 sites “were nominated by residents and businesses as trouble spots or recognised as being areas of low compliance where motorists are more likely to break Moving Traffic restrictions.” He added that first offenders will get a warning letter, but “if you are caught again though, you will receive a fine.”

How the Warning Period and £70 Fine Work

The council is running a six month grace period at each new camera. During that window, the first time a camera records your vehicle breaking a restriction, you receive a warning letter rather than a charge. The warning carries no penalty and no points, but it does confirm the camera is live and watching.

After that first warning, or once the six month period ends, every recorded contravention brings a Penalty Charge Notice. Outside London, the standard moving traffic penalty is £70. Pay within 21 days and the council halves it to £35. Leave it unpaid and the full amount stands, with the charge rising further if it progresses to a charge certificate and enforcement through the courts.

These are civil penalties, not criminal fines. That means no points land on your licence and the registered keeper of the vehicle is liable, whoever was driving. For most drivers the practical lesson is simple: a single mistake at one of these junctions could cost you £35, and a careless habit could cost far more over a year.

The Law Behind the Cameras

Councils outside London could not enforce moving traffic offences with cameras until recently. The power comes from Part 6 of the Traffic Management Act 2004, which the Department for Transport finally activated for English councils outside the capital in 2022. Before that, only London boroughs and a small number of Welsh authorities could issue camera penalties for banned turns, yellow box blocking, no entry breaches and weight limits.

Since then, dozens of councils have applied for the powers and begun installing cameras. Buckinghamshire is one of a growing list that includes authorities in the West Midlands, the North East and across the South. The Government requires each council to issue warning notices for the first six months at every new site, which is why Buckinghamshire drivers get that initial safety net before fines begin.

Broadbent framed the scheme around traffic flow and air quality rather than revenue. “Better flowing traffic leads to less air pollution and safer roads can encourage people to switch from cars to more sustainable forms of transport like cycling or public transport, which has multiple benefits for everyone,” he said. The council says the cameras are funded from its enforcement budget and that any surplus is ring fenced for further road safety work.

These cameras work differently from the speed cameras most drivers know. A speed camera measures how fast you are going. A moving traffic camera photographs a manoeuvre, such as crossing into a yellow box when your exit is blocked, turning where a sign forbids it, or driving through a no entry point. The footage is reviewed by a person before a notice goes out, and the council must be able to show the restriction was clearly signed.

The yellow box rule catches more drivers than any other. You must not enter the hatched area unless your exit lane is clear, and that applies even when the lights are green and the traffic ahead is crawling. The only exception is when you are turning right and are held up solely by oncoming traffic. Sitting in a box junction while the car in front fails to pull away is enough to trigger a penalty, so hold back if the road ahead is congested.

It is also worth remembering that the six month warning period runs separately at each new camera. A warning you received at one junction does not carry over to another, so the first time a different camera records you, the clock starts again at that site. Once any location passes its six month mark, a first offence brings a fine straight away.

How to Challenge a Penalty Charge Notice

If you believe a penalty is wrong, you can fight it, and the process costs nothing to start. Begin with an informal challenge to Buckinghamshire Council, setting out why the notice should not stand and attaching any evidence such as photographs, a breakdown report or proof that a sign was obscured. Do this quickly, because paying within 21 days secures the discounted rate and challenging can pause that clock in your favour if the council accepts your case.

If the council rejects an informal challenge and issues a formal Notice to Owner, you can make formal representations. Should the council still refuse, you have the right to take your case to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal, the independent body that handles moving traffic and parking appeals for councils in England outside London. An adjudicator reviews the evidence for free, and councils lose a meaningful share of the cases that reach this stage, often because signs were unclear or the restriction was poorly marked.

What Drivers Should Do Now

Learn the specific restrictions at the junctions you use. A yellow box means you must not enter unless your exit is clear, even if the light is green. A banned right turn applies at all times unless a sign says otherwise. If you drive a van or lorry near Iver, check the 7.5 tonne limit on Bangors Road before you plan a route.

Keep an eye out for the new warning signs, treat a warning letter as your one free reminder, and photograph any junction where the markings or signs look faded, because that evidence could win an appeal later. Camera enforcement of moving traffic offences is spreading fast across England, and Buckinghamshire will not be the last council to switch on a batch of new sites this year.

For more on how camera enforcement is changing for drivers, see our coverage on Motoring Chronicle.

Sources:

• GB News: Buckinghamshire new traffic cameras
• Department for Transport: moving traffic enforcement powers
• Traffic Penalty Tribunal