Junction made up nearly half of all fines in the borough since 2016 - you are warned


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The dreaded yellow box junctions can catch out even the best of drivers. Since 2016 Wandsworth Council has made more than  £1.7million in fines from cameras at the junctions, including more than £735,000 at the junction between Putney High Street and Lacy Road in 2018 alone.

This particular junction made up nearly half of all fines in the borough since 2016. In fact, the top earning junctions were all on Putney High Street. Putney High Street Junction with Lacy Road is also the top earner for the council in 2019 so far, raking in more than £200,000 from nearly 5,000 penalty charge notices.

So far this year the council has issued nearly 9,000 fines totalling £390,365. However, this is nowhere near the bumper number of fines issued in 2018 which totalled nearly 15,500, and brought in more than £1million for the council. This was nearly 10 times the amount of fines issued in 2016, which stood at just 1,711 and generated £92,757 for the borough.

Across London, the penalty charge notice for yellow box junctions is currently £130, but this is reduced to £65 if paid within 14 days.

The distinctive yellow markings are there to remind drivers to keep the junction clear for through traffic to avoid jams and keep the space free for fire engines to exit stations. However, they can be hard to avoid when a car cuts in and leaves you sitting in the box.

A spokesperson for the council told this website: "The fines imposed in these cases are for drivers who have needlessly blocked key junctions, caused obstructions and created extra congestion, delays and inconvenience for other road users. By law all the revenue raised must be spent on transport related services such as repairing potholes, funding free bus passes and taxicards for pensioners and disabled people and also on the costs of transporting vulnerable and disabled children with special educational needs to and from school.

“Many boroughs in London use cameras that automatically issue tickets to drivers. Our approach is different. In Wandsworth the footage is examined by a member of staff who makes a common sense judgement on whether an offence has been committed before a PCN is issued."

We’ve crunched the figures and created a list of where you are most likely to be fined in the borough. The table shows the number of pcns issued from 2016 to present. The cash value is the amount actually collected by the council in each case: 

Putney High Street Junction with Lacy Road SW15 – £943,950 (16,062 PCNs)
Putney High Street Junction with Norroy Road SW15 – £334,501 (5,583 PCNs)
Putney High Street SW15 (A1) -£282,439 (4,622 PCNs)
Putney High Street Junction with Chartfield Avenue SW15 – £47,726 (860 PCNs)
Garratt Lane Junction with Thornsett Road SW18 – £37,400 (1,198 PCNs)
Putney High Street Junction with Chelverton Road SW15 – £33,181 (532 PCNs)
Queenstown Road Junction with Broughton Street SW8 – £16,388 (262 PCNs)
Longmead Road Junction with Mitcham Road SW15 – £5,970 (143 PCNs)
Bellevue Road Junction with St James’ Drive SW17 – £2,860 (55 PCNs)
Mitcham Road Junction with Longmead Road SW17 – £2,145 (64 PCNs)
Wimbledon Park Side Junction with Inner Park Road SW19 – £1,595 (36 PCNs)
Longmead Road, SW17 (E2) – £1,105 (31 PCNs)
Putney Bridge Road SW15 (A1) – £975 (20 PCNs)
Garratt Lane Junction with Earlsfield Road SW18 – £770 (13 PCNs)
Mitcham Road SW17 – £398 (4 PCNs)
Nightingale Lane SW12 – £130 (2 PCNs)
Ardshiel Close SW15 – £65 (1 PCN)

Sian Bayley - Local Democracy Reporter

October 11, 2019