Vicar Lane: Growing number claim they've been wrongly fined by bus gate camera near Leeds Kirkgate Market
A growing number of people claim they’ve been wrongly fined by a bus gate camera in Leeds city centre - with traders accusing the council of refusing to admit there’s a fault.
It was reported last month how Kirkgate Market trader Sengy Tang was hit with 11 fines in the space of a single month for allegedly breaching restrictions on Vicar Lane - despite insisting his delivery van was never there at the times claimed.
Now, two more people, including a long-standing business owner, have come forward to say the same thing happened to them.
Since 2021, access to a stretch of Vicar Lane has been restricted to buses, hackney carriages and cyclists during peak hours: between 7am and 10am, and again from 4pm to 7pm.
Daniel Mellor, 23, said he was taking his partner to a hairdressing appointment on Call Lane in May after the restrictions ended, but was later slapped with a penalty charge notice (PCN). He contested the charge for months, even taking his claim as far as a tribunal, but it was rejected.
“Using a Google Maps timeline, I was able to submit evidence that I was at my partner’s house until 9.50am before setting off - and we were miles away at the time they claimed we were on Vicar Lane,” he explained. “But they still just chucked that evidence out.”
He added: “This lasted months and I was sending email after email, holding back my outrage. But because it took so long and was eventually thrown out, I ended up having to pay £70 instead of the initial £35.”
Meanwhile, Mick Allen, 62, has been based in the market since 1966, having taken over the running of B&M Fabrics from his mother.
He said: “I got a letter out of the blue saying that we’d gone through the bus gate on May 21. I thought, that’s weird - we always make sure we don’t go through at peak times.
“I knew I wouldn’t have done that. So, I checked the camera I have at home and saw that we left the house in Moortown at 9.56am - that would have given us just four minutes to get to Vicar Lane if that camera is correct.
“I appealed, but I didn’t include all of this detail because I thought they’d be happy to cancel the ticket. Then I had a letter saying that the appeal had failed and the cameras are never wrong.”
He added: “In the end, I paid the £35 because it wasn’t worth it. But I also sent the council an email saying I want that money back and an apology when all of this is sorted out. It’s the principle of it that has annoyed me - the council won't admit that they are wrong.”
It comes after Sengy Tang, the owner of Vietnamese street kitchen Banh & Mee, was left perplexed by a sudden wave of PCNs in the same month, all alleging he’d breached restrictions despite years of complying.
He said his team carefully times their deliveries, leaving their base in Lower Wortley at around 9.50am to arrive after the 10am cut-off. But the PCNs he received in May recorded alleged breaches between 9.37am and 9.51am.
He believes that the camera’s clock is out by about 26 minutes - and says evidence including CCTV footage and receipts kept by other traders prove they were miles away from Vicar Lane at the times shown on their fines.
A spokesperson for Leeds City Council said: “The camera concerned in this matter has been tested and checked, with it found to be operating normally and with no issues or inaccuracies in its timing systems.”