Bus lane enforcement blunder saw council try to punish driver for fine he hadn't been told about

Oct 3 2012 EXCLUSIVE by Ben Spencer

Bus Lane Image 2

BUNGLING council bosses tried to punish a driver for not paying a motoring fine he had never been told about.

An admin error saw David Mason ordered to pay £90 for driving in a bus lane because he had not stumped up a £60 fine after being sent a charge notice.

But the sales worker had never received the charge notice from Glasgow City Council for the incident on Glassford Street in July.

David, 25, of Gallowgate, said: “I contacted the council straight away and assumed they would think I was making this up but the guy I spoke to said there had been an error in their system.

“He said that people have not got the letters due to some error in the system and that because they realised there had been an error for me I would only have to pay £30.

“I think because there had been an error on their part I should not have to pay it at all though. But what worried me more is that the guy would not tell me how many people were affected.

“When I asked, I was told I would have to do a Freedom of Information request if I wanted to know that.”

David got a letter from the council apologising for the blunder and blaming “an administrative error”.

A council spokesman was unable to confirm how many people were affected by the blunder as The Glaswegian went to print but said they took a “common sense approach to dealing with appeals”.

The Glaswegian has been reporting numerous blunders since the scheme began on April 23 – from obscured bus lane time signs to a website with details that are four years out of date.

The first month saw 15,369 penalty notices sent out worth £1million in fines.

Click here to read our special investiagtion into bus lane chaos in Glasgow.