Northampton, shy toll...

Stay Frosty

Stay Frosty

Electrician
T6 Legend
Apparently we've got a new West Northants council and one of their first acts was to declare the part time inner inward lane of what is a two lanes in one lane out urban road (Weedon Rd, Duston) now a 24/7 bus only lane... this road gets possibly ten buses an hour all of which manage their outward journey perfectly well on the other single westward lane but the bastids caught me swerving like a maniac into this lane to undertake a car waiting to turn across the single outward lane... £30 fine!
Anyway, more waffle but these scum bags... West Northants counci... are the excrement left over from the bankrupt Northampton County Council, that lot really went bankrupt after building themselves a brand new head office called 1 Angel Square in the town centre, this, typically, is where my £30 ransom is being demanded from.
Going back to the actual offence and this is them giving me a rinsing and has nothing to do with actual motoring offences although they have painted a solid white line a foot wide as a margin to the bus lane meaning, in their eyes, that if the remaining lane you're supposed to be in is blocked as mine was you have to sit and wait for the blockage to clear... the blockage will be regular though as it occurs outside a BP filling station and all of the oncoming traffic also squeezed into a single lane isn't going to stop for some Herbert trying to cross their path to fill up so you sit there... with an empty lane to your left... in the shothole that is Northampton, I was born here but I'm not going to die here, I hate the place, peace out.
 
Stay Frosty said:
Apparently we've got a new West Northants council and one of their first acts was to declare the part time inner inward lane of what is a two lanes in one lane out urban road (Weedon Rd, Duston) now a 24/7 bus only lane... this road gets possibly ten buses an hour all of which manage their outward journey perfectly well on the other single westward lane but the bastids caught me swerving like a maniac into this lane to undertake a car waiting to turn across the single outward lane... £30 fine!
Anyway, more waffle but these scum bags... West Northants counci... are the excrement left over from the bankrupt Northampton County Council, that lot really went bankrupt after building themselves a brand new head office called 1 Angel Square in the town centre, this, typically, is where my £30 ransom is being demanded from.
Going back to the actual offence and this is them giving me a rinsing and has nothing to do with actual motoring offences although they have painted a solid white line a foot wide as a margin to the bus lane meaning, in their eyes, that if the remaining lane you're supposed to be in is blocked as mine was you have to sit and wait for the blockage to clear... the blockage will be regular though as it occurs outside a BP filling station and all of the oncoming traffic also squeezed into a single lane isn't going to stop for some Herbert trying to cross their path to fill up so you sit there... with an empty lane to your left... in the shothole that is Northampton, I was born here but I'm not going to die here, I hate the place, peace out.
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They want you to be travelling on the bus that can use the bus lane, that's the idea. Making you sit in a queue while an empty bit of tarmac next to you is unused is just trying to incentivise you to use public transport, when that fails, as it will, more draconian measures will be introduced.
Car / van ownership will be only for the wealthy in future.
 
Cheers, when you explain the logic behind their action I realise it has nothing to do with generating revenue.
I'm sure by the time I've finally finished doing up this 90yr old money pit, sold it and moved to somewhere a lot calmer I might get over the feeling of having been conned.

When you go to the council site to pay your fine they have the street camera video footage to view and admittedly while the frame rate is pretty low you can see the car in front of me slam on the anchors minus indicators ready to dive into the filling station on the other side of the road, watching it and they must be really desperate for income.
Got the video on my phone but apparently wrong file extension for the forum... Ok I know, I will get over it eventually.
 
I'm not that good at computery stuff but it would be good to try and convert the video file as a way of getting a Stayfrosty "drive by" on the forum at the very least.:geek:
 
I'd have taken the same course of action as you did, a quite instinctive and safe way to keep moving.
 
Strange place to put a Bus Lane enforcement camera. If you were cynical you might think it had been done on purpose.

put in a FOI request to see how many others have been caught by the same camera and then use that to appeal claiming entrapment (if you can be arsed that is)
 
Thanks Dave, I could have made the stop although it would have been close allowing for the T6 being a bit heavier than that Merc... my pass on the inside was more of a strafing run with guns blazing as I shot down the German fighter ace!
Mike it's just annoying in these circumstances that some snidey git in the council has recognised a pinch point ripe for exploitaton and revenue raising, it's obviously easier to pay the £30 fine, then come on here and moan about it as they're not going to throw away what has to be a nice little earner. This was on Easter Monday hence the light road, it's easy to imagine the gridlock during a normal non lockdown weekday at say 4pm with a constant outward stream of traffic going past the filling station to their left and some numpty blocking the inward lane opposite while waiting to cross into the filling station... realistically the bus lane is empty 90 odd% of the time and the Westbridge BP filling station has now been designated as an SSSI.:unsure:
 
Thanks for the heads up, I'll try not to do the same! I drive a lot in London so wise to such 'scameras' however i didn't know they they were up to the same tricks in Northampton.

I was under the Wellingborough council before, since the merge my council tax has jumped up a load.
 
@sparkzer the bus lane starts up by Halfords near Sixfields and extends all the way in to town until Castle Station which is just over the railway bridge from the petrol station, normally only catches people visiting the town who don't spot the A4 warning signs hidden at strategic points along the route, then they wonder why we all shop at MK or Rushden Lakes, avoid Northampton, we are unworthy!:cautious:
 
Taken from the RAC pages

What happens if you cross in to a bus lane?
In some circumstances you may be required to cross the solid white line into the bus lane. You should only drive into the lane when you have no other choice but to move over.

These cases could include; to avoid an obstruction in the road, to move out of the path of an emergency vehicle or to avoid an accident.

If you do enter a bus lane you must make sure you leave it again as soon as is safe to do so.:thumbsup:


You could argue that the vehicle in front is indicating to turn into the filling station and as you where behind it you would have obscured the flashing indicator ...so to avoid an accident you only entered the bus lane temporarily so other vehicle would see the obstruction and it’s flashing indicator
 
The car just jammed it's anchors on, no indicator, just probably thought "ooh, fuel and a chance to pick up a last minute Easter egg" you tend to half expect it here in Mordor!
 
Stay Frosty said:
The car just jammed it's anchors on, no indicator, just probably thought "ooh, fuel and a chance to pick up a last minute Easter egg" you tend to half expect it here in Mordor!
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if you had ( or have ) a dash cam ..this would backup what occurred and you would still argue you did enter the bus lane to avoid an accident...I’d still appeal ..best of luck :thumbsup:
 
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