Box junctions, banned turns and no entry
Councils in England outside London have enforced moving traffic contraventions since 2022, camera by camera. What the notice costs, who is liable, when a first offence should get a warning instead — and exactly how narrow that protection is.
Not every penalty charge notice from a council is about parking. The same councils, using the same law and the same tribunal, also issue notices for driving in a bus lane, stopping in a yellow box junction, making a banned turn or ignoring a no-entry sign. The notice looks the same, the appeal route is the same, and the money works the same way — but you were moving at the time, and nothing on a parking page explains it.
What is different from a parking ticket is the warning. For the first six months at each new camera, a first offence should get you a warning instead of a charge — and knowing exactly how narrow that protection is is worth more than anything else on this page.
Traffic Management Act 2004, Part 6
Schedule 7 to the Traffic Management Act 2004 lists the signs and road markings that can be enforced this way. It has separate tables for England and for Wales.
Traffic Management Act 2004: statutory guidance for local authorities outside London on civil enforcement of bus lane and moving traffic contraventions
What counts
| Group | What it covers | Sign or marking |
|---|---|---|
| Box junctions | Entering a yellow box junction and stopping in it when your exit is not clear. | The criss-cross yellow markings, diagram 1043. |
| Banned turns | No right turn, no left turn, and no U-turn signs. | Diagrams 612, 613 and 614. |
| No entry and one way | Driving past a no-entry sign, or the wrong way along a one-way street. | Diagrams 616 and 652. |
| Bus lanes and bus gates | Driving in a lane or on a route reserved for buses, cycles and taxis, or on a bus-only route. | Diagrams 952 and 953, with their own bus lane diagrams in the Wales table. |
| Pedestrian and cycle zones | Entering or waiting in a restricted pedestrian zone, or driving in a cycle-only route or cycle lane. | Diagrams 618.3B, 618.3C, 955 to 960.1. |
| Prohibited vehicles | Signs banning motor vehicles, or solo motorcycles, or goods vehicles over a stated weight. | Diagrams 619, 619.1, 619.2 and 622.1A. |
| Keeping an entrance clear | Stopping on the marked area outside an entrance where vehicles must not stop. | Diagram 1027.1. |
| Mandatory direction and priority | Ignoring a sign that tells traffic which way it must go, or who has priority. | Diagrams 606, 609, 610 and 615. |
Bus lanes and bus gates have their own page — and their own rule about warnings →
The warning, and exactly how narrow it is
For moving traffic contraventions, councils outside London should issue a warning notice rather than a penalty charge for a driver's first contravention at a given camera location.
The six months run from the start of enforcement at each particular camera site, not from the first time that driver was caught anywhere.
A warning at one junction is no protection at the next one, and no protection at the same junction once its six months are up. It is a bedding-in period for the camera, not a free pass for the driver.
Note the verb. The statutory guidance says authorities should issue a warning, not that they must. It is a recommendation to the council, not a right you can insist on — and it runs for 6 months from the day enforcement started at that camera, not from the first time you were caught anywhere.
Box junctions
You must not enter a box junction until your exit road or lane is clear.
The exception is as binding as the rule, and nobody remembers it.
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.
Sitting still inside the yellow criss-cross while you wait to turn right is permitted, provided the only thing stopping you is oncoming traffic or another right-turner. Sitting still because your own exit is blocked is the contravention.
At signalled roundabouts the rule is stricter: you must not enter the box unless you can cross over it completely without stopping.
Highway Code rule 174. Law: Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions, Schedule 9, parts 7 and 8. Diagram 1043.
What it costs
The charge is set at the same level as a higher-level parking contravention — the amounts already given on this site for council penalty charge notices. The Secretary of State sets them in regulations; the council does not pick a figure.
| Band | Charge | If paid early |
|---|---|---|
| Band 1 | £60 | £30 |
| Band 2 | £70 | £35 |
21 days, not fourteen. These notices are almost always served by post from camera evidence, so the discount period is the camera one — longer than the fourteen days people expect from a windscreen ticket. The discount is half the charge.
Who has to pay it
The person liable is the registered keeper. The person liable is the vehicle owner, which the guidance presumes to be the person in whose name the vehicle is registered with the DVLA.
This is worth holding next to the private track. A council does not have to identify the driver — it goes to the registered keeper as a matter of course. A private operator has to satisfy the four conditions in Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 before it can do the same. Same acronym on the envelope, completely different starting position.
How to challenge it
Representations to the council first. If the council rejects them it must issue a notice of rejection, and that is what opens the appeal to an independent adjudicator.
The adjudicator is the same one that hears parking cases: London Tribunals for notices issued in London, the Traffic Penalty Tribunal for England outside London and for Wales. Free to use, and no solicitor needed.
Both tribunals are free to use, and you do not need a solicitor.
What decides these cases
What decides these cases is usually the same handful of things.
- Whether the sign or marking is the one Schedule 7 allows to be enforced, and whether it was there, visible and lit as required.
- Whether the traffic order behind the sign was validly made — the same two-part question that applies to a yellow line.
- For a box junction, whether the exit was genuinely clear when you entered, and whether you stopped because of circumstances beyond your control.
- Whether you were within the six-month warning period at that camera site.
- Whether the notice reached the registered keeper within the statutory deadlines.
Why the traffic order behind a sign is a separate question →
Where this applies
Councils in England outside London may enforce both bus lane and moving traffic contraventions where they have taken the powers. The powers were extended to authorities outside London in 2022 and councils have been adopting them since, camera site by camera site.
London boroughs and Transport for London have enforced both for far longer, under the London Local Authorities Acts rather than Part 6.
Wales has its own statutory guidance and its own table in Schedule 7.
We have not verified the position in Scotland or Northern Ireland for moving traffic contraventions, and do not state one. Bus lane enforcement in Scotland runs under its own regulations rather than the Traffic Management Act.
Common questions
What is a moving traffic penalty charge notice?
Do I get a warning the first time?
Does a warning at one junction protect me at another?
Can I stop in a box junction to turn right?
How much is it, and how long do I have to pay?
Who is liable — me or whoever was driving?
Where do I appeal?
Does this apply everywhere in the UK?
Sources
Figures last checked 8 September 2026
- Traffic Management Act 2004: statutory guidance for local authorities outside London on civil enforcement of bus lane and moving traffic contraventions accessed 13 September 2026
- Traffic Management Act 2004, Schedule 7 accessed 13 September 2026
- Traffic Management Act 2004, Part 6 accessed 13 September 2026
- GOV.WALES: Guidance for local authorities on the civil enforcement of bus lane and moving traffic contraventions accessed 13 September 2026