The RAC has found that the Dennis Roundabout yellow box in Guildford raised £81,445 in fines, in a seven month period in 2024.
4,250 penalty charge notices (PCNs) were issued for the yellow box in the period, more than all yellow box PCNs issued by councils in Reading, Hampshire, Wokingham, Gloucestershire, Leeds, and Leicestershire combined in 2024.
The RAC found that drivers outside of Cardiff and London paid £998,640 in yellow box fines last year, with Manchester City Council accounting for 49% of the total, across the six yellow boxes it enforces.
Manchester City Council issued 13,130 PCNs in 2024, the equivalent of 36 per day.
Medway Council, in Kent, issued the second-most PCNs (4,433), collecting £145,162 in fines throughout 2024, with Surrey County Council coming third with its single yellow box.
Rod Dennis, senior policy officer at the RAC, said: “The enormously high number of penalty charge notices being raised in just a few council areas suggests things are awry.
“The large number of penalties being dished out over a small number of locations and in a short space of time should send alarm bells ringing in council offices.
“In fact, a small number of fines – and a small number of appeals – indicates a yellow box that’s working as it should.
“This should be the ambition behind any yellow box that a council is looking to start enforcing, rather than being seen as a revenue-raising opportunity.”
Until May 2022, only councils in London and Cardiff were able to enforce yellow box violations.
The Department for Transport advised that councils should issue warning notices for first-time yellow box violators, for the first six months of enforcement.
Dennis said: “It’s vital box junctions are used in the correct places and are only as big as absolutely necessary.
“They must be fairly set up so that drivers don’t find themselves stranded through no fault of their own. Sadly, we are aware of several locations where this isn’t the case.
“We’ve previously expressed concern that drivers would get fined unnecessarily without the Government updating its box junction design guidance.”
