Hundreds of letters are being sent to motorists after they were incorrectly issued with bus lane fines.
The motorists who were wrongly fined after driving in the bus lanes will be issued with a full refund.
The refunds will only apply to those who received Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) in the period between the Experimental Traffic Regulation Order (ETRO) expiring and it being replaced by permanent orders.
A spokesperson for Hull City Council said: “We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused. We have prepared letters which are being sent out to all affected motorists, so there is no need to contact us.
“As soon as we identified this admin issue, we turned off the enforcement cameras on all bus lanes, except for the Carr Lane bus gate, while we investigated. We then began the process of issuing refunds to 1,219 drivers who had paid to date, totalling £38k, as well as cancelling a further 406 PCNs that had not yet been paid.
“A new traffic regulation order was then prepared, and this was advertised in the Hull Daily Mail on Wednesday 23 March, in line with the usual statutory guidance for any traffic or roadworks regulations.
“After a successful trial period, Hull City Council’s Cabinet voted in December to make the 7am- 6.30pm bus lanes permanent, and this is currently being implemented.
“Whilst this is in progress, we would advise motorists to follow the signed restrictions on bus lanes, which are there to improve the reliability and punctuality of Hull’s public transport system and to keep cyclists safe from the main flow of traffic.”
During the period of the ETROs, bus company Stagecoach reported 9 per cent quicker journey times.
With buses running freely in dedicated lanes along all of Hull’s key arterial roads into the city centre, and restricting cars and other traffic from the bus lanes all day, it has created a much more efficient form of travel around the city when using public transport.
The dedicated bus and cycle lanes also encourage people to travel more actively, and help to directly combat air pollution, reduce congestion on the roads and improve health and wellbeing – a key part of Hull’s strategy towards becoming carbon neutral by 2030.
Carr Lane bus gate remains active, and motorists will be fined for using this lane.
Hull City Council will begin enforcing the orders as soon as they are made permanent, at which point driving in a bus lane will result in a PCN.
