Moving traffic penalties: box junctions, banned turns and bus gates

CCTV evidenceSigns and linesLaw checked 22 October 2026

Moving traffic contraventions break the rules that signs and road markings set for vehicles on the move: stopping in a yellow box junction, making a banned turn, driving through a bus gate, or driving into a road that is closed to traffic. In London, and where a council elsewhere has been given the powers, they are enforced by camera, and the council posts a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) to the vehicle's registered keeper. Everywhere else they are still a matter for the police.

A moving traffic PCN is a civil penalty, like a parking PCN. It carries no penalty points and is not a criminal conviction.

What counts

Signs with red circles mostly tell you what you must not do, and signs with blue circles what you must do. A plate below the sign gives the times or the exceptions.

A bus gate is a short stretch of road that only buses, and often cycles and taxis, may use, marked by a round blue sign showing the vehicles allowed. A School Street is a road outside a school that is closed to traffic at the start and end of the school day. It uses "motor vehicles prohibited" or pedestrian zone signs showing the times, so it is enforced in the same way. Residents and other permit holders are usually exempt.

Driving in a bus lane is a separate bus lane contravention (code 34), enforced the same way: see bus and cycle lanes. In England, stopping on school "keep clear" zig-zags where an upright sign bans stopping can also be enforced by camera (code 48). The exact wording of each code, and the suffix letters that add detail (for example, r after code 50 means a banned right turn), are on the contravention codes page.

Red lights and speeding stay with the police

Councils cannot issue PCNs for going through a red light or for speeding. The law lets councils enforce only signs whose breach carries no penalty points. Going through a red light (3 points) and speeding (3 to 6 points) remain criminal offences, dealt with by the police: see police penalties.

Who can issue the penalties

Everywhere else these rules are enforced only by the police, as criminal offences. Outside London the police can still prosecute even where a council has the powers, but you cannot be penalised by both for the same incident. In England, since 29 April 2026, a combined authority, such as a mayoral authority, can also enforce in a member council's area if that council agrees.

Having the powers does not mean a council enforces everywhere: it chooses its camera sites, and some councils take a year or more to start. Check the council's website, through the list of council parking pages.

The councils in England outside London with moving traffic powers, by the date the powers took effect:

• 15 July 2022 (12 councils): Bath and North East Somerset, Bedford, Buckinghamshire, Derby, Durham, Hampshire, Kent, Luton, Norfolk, Oxfordshire, Reading, Surrey.
• 22 July 2023 (40): Birmingham, Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole, Bradford, Bristol, Cambridgeshire, Central Bedfordshire, Cheshire West and Chester, Coventry, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Hertfordshire, Lancashire, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, Manchester, Medway, Newcastle upon Tyne, North Northamptonshire, Nottingham, Oldham, Peterborough, Rochdale, Rotherham, Salford, Sheffield, Shropshire, South Gloucestershire, Southampton, Stoke-on-Trent, Thurrock, Trafford, Walsall, West Berkshire, West Northamptonshire, West Sussex, Wigan, Windsor and Maidenhead, Wirral, Wokingham.
• 7 December 2024 (21): Bolton, Bury, Devon, Dudley, Hull, Leicestershire, North Somerset, North Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Sandwell, Sefton, Solihull, Southend-on-Sea, Stockport, Suffolk, Sunderland, Wiltshire, Wolverhampton, York.
• 9 December 2025 (8): Brighton and Hove, Calderdale, Cornwall, Dorset, Kirklees, Knowsley, Milton Keynes, Slough.

The orders are on legislation.gov.uk: 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025. More councils are preparing to apply, in England and in Wales.

Yellow box junctions

Rule 174 of the Highway Code says: "You MUST NOT enter the box until your exit road or lane is clear. However, you may enter the box and wait when you want to turn right, and are only stopped from doing so by oncoming traffic, or by other vehicles waiting to turn right. At signalled roundabouts you MUST NOT enter the box unless you can cross over it completely without stopping."

In practice:

• What matters is the traffic when you enter. The contravention is entering the box so that you have to stop in it because of stationary vehicles. Government guidance says being stopped by something unexpected after you have entered, such as a vehicle pushing in ahead of you, is not a contravention.
• Turning right is the exception at a junction: you may wait in the box while oncoming traffic, or other vehicles waiting to turn right, stop you from turning.
• Part of your vehicle stopped in the box counts.
• Other places. Boxes can also be marked on a narrow two-way road (no wider than 4.5 metres), where you must not enter if oncoming traffic would make you stop, and outside the vehicle entrance of a fire, police or ambulance station.
• Shapes. Since 22 April 2016 councils have been able to mark boxes in whatever shape fits the junction, without government approval.
• Badly designed boxes. Government guidance tells councils outside London not to start enforcing where better road layout or signs would prevent contraventions. It gives a box whose exit you cannot see before entering as an example of poor design. An adjudicator can allow an appeal where a restriction is not properly signed or marked.
• No grace period. In January 2026 the government answered a petition for a 10-second grace period by saying it saw no need to change the rules.

How much it costs

Outside London the amount is the council's higher level penalty, which is £70 or £60 depending on the band it uses in that area. The PCN gives the exact dates. If it is not paid, the steps that follow, and the extra court and bailiff fees, are the same as for any PCN: see PCN fine amounts and paying a PCN.

The warning letter

In England outside London, for the first 6 months of camera enforcement at each new camera site, the council should send a warning letter, not a PCN, the first time a vehicle breaks the rule there. A second contravention at the same site within those 6 months gets a PCN. This also applies when a council starts enforcing an old restriction, such as a long-established box junction, by camera for the first time.

The rule comes from the government's statutory guidance, which councils must follow unless they can justify not doing so. If you got a PCN instead of a warning letter for your first contravention at a new site, say so when you challenge it.

London has no general warning rule. London councils are expected to send a warning letter for a first contravention in the first 6 months they enforce a mandatory cycle lane, a cycle route or a "buses prohibited" sign, the rules London added in 2022. Welsh councils are advised to send warning letters instead of PCNs for about two weeks after they first start camera enforcement.

How to challenge one

A moving traffic PCN comes by post, so it is already the formal notice: there is no informal challenge stage.

1. Look at the evidence. Councils usually let you see the photos or video online. In England outside London and in Wales the council must give you still images if you ask.
2. Check the date. Outside London the council must serve the PCN within 28 days of the contravention, or within 6 months if it asked the DVLA for the keeper's details within 14 days and did not get them in time. In London, London Tribunals says the PCN should normally arrive within 28 days, with longer allowed for delays such as at the DVLA. If yours came late, say so.
3. Make representations to the council within 28 days of the PCN, on the legal grounds. For example: the contravention did not happen (your exit was clear when you entered the box, or the sign was missing, hidden or wrong); you were not the keeper at the time; the vehicle was stolen; or the penalty is more than the law allows. Outside London you can also say the council did not follow the rules, for example by sending a PCN instead of a warning letter at a new camera site in England, and you can ask it to cancel the penalty for compelling reasons. London's moving traffic PCNs have fewer grounds, and neither of these is one of them.
4. Wait for the decision. Outside London the council must reply within 56 days, or your representations count as accepted. Challenging can cost you the discount. In Wales a council that rejects your representations must offer the discount again for 21 days. Transport for London keeps the discount open while it considers a challenge made within 14 days, and offers it again for 14 days if it says no.
5. Appeal within 28 days of the Notice of Rejection: to London Tribunals for London PCNs, or to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal for England outside London and Wales. Appealing is free.

Appealing against a PCN and appealing to the adjudicator explain each stage in full, and CCTV evidence covers camera enforcement in general. The arguments that win and lose are in the guides to yellow box junctions, bus lanes and bus gates, and banned turns, no entry and School Streets.

This page was checked against the law in England and Wales on 22 October 2026. It is general guidance, not legal advice: see the legal disclaimer.