Britain’s Most Fined Street Revealed As Furious Drivers Face Hundreds Of Penalties Every Day
FURIOUS locals have spoken over their fury over a street that has wracked up the most driving fines in the UK.
Data shows more than 100,000 penalties were issued along Corporation Street in the city centre in Birmingham.
The city council dished out 407,633 penalty notices last year alone
Richard Hunt, 48, gets charged fees when he works in the city centreCredit: News Group Newspapers Ltd
Birmingham is home to Corporation Street, the street with the most driving fines in BritainCredit: News Group Newspapers Ltd
Richard Gredden, 63, says he’s not noticed any change to air quality since the schemeCredit: News Group Newspapers Ltd
The data – which covers the 12 months to April – equates to an average of some 277 being caught every single day.
And it comes as last month the city announced they are also introduced 20mph zones, in a move slammed by critics as “anti-motorist”.
When The Sun visited the city in August, we found city where many are united by their hatred for one issue – the Clean Air Zone (CAZ).
Birmingham City Council said the high number of fines on Corporation Street is due to fact it connects to the very busy Aston Expressway.
George Faizey 22 is unimpressed with the schemeCredit: News Group Newspapers Ltd
The cameras are operational 24 hours a dayCredit: News Group Newspapers Ltd
And they defended the CAZ, saying it has slashed pollution the city and the numbers non-compliant drivers have dipped from 15.2% in June 2021 to 3.1% in June 2026.
The council’s rules force drivers to cough up fees for driving in their city – which is £8 a day for cars, taxis and vans, and £50 a day for larger vehicles.
Big brother-style cameras cover three square miles of Birmingham’s centre to monitor drivers – much as it does in cities such as London and Bristol.
But with 100,985 PCNs Corporation street – Brimingham earns the crown of having the most fined street in the UK, beating Irvine Street in Liverpool that has 74,708 and the capital’s Tottenham Court Road with 59,329.
The round the clock CAZ scheme launched in 2021 has pulled in more than £100million.
But the citizens of Britain’s second city are feeling more furious than flush.
Richard Hunt, 48, who runs a removal firm named MDL, is hit with the £8 charge for all city centre jobs.
He said: “If it was really a Clean Air Zone then they just wouldn’t allow these so-called polluting vehicles in at all.
Kiran Thandi 42 with her mom Palvinder Kaur 69 who had to buy a new car due to the schemeCredit: News Group Newspapers Ltd
The Clean Air Zones cover three square miles in BirminghamCredit: News Group Newspapers Ltd
“When they say, you can pollute all you like as long as you pay us £8, that shows how sincere they are.
“What annoys me is that I’m a regular payer but when it has slipped my mind, they don’t look at my record and send me a reminder. No, it’s a £120 fine, which you can pay for £60.
“My partner has an Eco diesel which she pays £30 tax because of how clean it is and yet she has to pay the Clean Air Zone charge.
“What are they doing with all the money…vacuuming the air?”
George Faizey, 22, a trainee lawyer, was also unimpressed by the scheme: “It is utter bull,” he said.
“Nothing to do with clean air makes sense to me because whatever we’re adding it is trifling compared to other places in the world.
“I don’t believe the scheme is about clean air. I think it’s more to do with an extra revenue stream.
“I don’t drive into Birmingham because I have a 2014 diesel and I have already been caught out in Oxford and London.”
Just to add to the madness, it turns out the City Council has fined itself a total of £470,000 because its own vehicles were non-compliant.
Allan Freeman, 59, an odd-job man, said: “Imagine not getting your own vehicles in order and then paying yourself. It’s ridiculous. I don’t drive and it even winds me up.
“I get the bus into the city centre from Nechells and when we get to the junction with the ring-road, nothing moves because all the traffic diverts onto the ring-road to avoid the Clean Air Zone.
“I’ve known a 20 minute bus ride take an hour with all the traffic idling and presumably polluting. Personally I see no reason for it. It’s like the smoking ban to me, a complete waste of time.”
Muz Khan and daughter Sienna Rose KhanCredit: Roland Leon
Kashan Awan said many can’t afford the chargesCredit: Roland Leon
Another non-driver unimpressed with the new scheme was Richard Gredden, 63, a support worker from Cannock.
“I haven’t noticed any difference in the air itself, but I have noticed the lack of shops and small shops in particular because not so many people come into the centre of town.
“I want a clean environment but you have to ask if this initiative is working and if they are considering the downsides of the damage being done to small businesses by people not coming in.”
“I’ve heard we are in danger of losing the Flea Market. Now you find tourists are here but not so much the Brummies.”
Those travelling into Birmingham by car face a potential double-whammy. Whilst many vehicles escape the CAZ charge there is no escaping the high cost of parking and the old one-two against drivers is having an effect.
Kashan Awan, 25, who works in hospitality in the city centre, said: “Everyone I know takes buses or trains into work because they can’t afford the parking charges or sometimes even find a space.
“I see a lot of people getting tickets because they think they can get away with it for a few minutes but they can’t. I can drive, I can afford a car but I don’t bring it into town.”
The central zone covered by the scheme includes some of Birmingham’s poorest and most populous places such as Ladywood and Highgate but living within it doesn’t change anything. If your vehicle is ‘non-compliant’ you have to pay.
Farouq Ahmad, 66, a recently retired lorry driver, said: “I live within the Clean Air Zone and I can tell you one thing – the air isn’t clean.
“Every week I have to clean my windows and my house from all the dust that comes in so something isn’t working.
“And it is ruining businesses. I have a friend who had a flower stall on the marke who had to pay £8-a-day for his van and with fewer customers it crippled him. To drive into town and park, you’re £15 down straight away.”
Down in Birmingham’s historic markets area, many stall holders are against the CAZ.
Food stall holder Melanie, 50, said: “We had to buy a new lorry to make it compliant and the traffic is still chock-a-block in the city centre creating all manner of pollution so I don’t think it has worked.
“I feel sorry for night workers who start at 11pm and then go home the next day – they end up paying double. It does stop people wanting to come into town.”
Kiran Thandi’s mum Palvinder Kaur, 69, has been running a menswear stall in the market for 25 years.
Kiran, 42, said: “There was a long time when we had to drop Mum into work because her car was not compliant. She had to buy a new one in the end.
“It has certainly made some areas of town less busy. Parts of it are dead and businesses did not need that hit especially in 2021 coming out of Covid restrictions.
“Most of the bus stops are on the other side of town to the market so a lot of people need two buses to get here.”
Clothes stall vendor Jenny, 59, said: “I have been working here for 34 years and trade has gone right down.
“The Clean Air Zone does have a lot to do with it because people can’t afford the newer cars and they can’t afford the parking charges. It’s just them taxing the poor like they always do.
“You can say people can take public transport but if you are doing a big shop, you need your car and the trains are rammed. It is a terrible idea.”
Muz Khan, 58, who runs an accessory stall in the Flea Market, said: “I think it’s been a waste of time and money and where has all that money gone?
“You’d think Birmingham Council would be rich with all that.
“We have certainly noticed fewer customers and there has been no compensation for us, no reduction in rates or something to acknowledge the harm it has caused.”
Her daughter, Sienna-Rose, 17, who was helping out, added: “I don’t see how you can create a clean air zone when air moves around so the dirty air will blow in anyway from all the polluting cars circling the city centre.
“They want everyone to go electric but those things need big batteries and they are polluting too.”
In a statement, Birmingham City Council said: “The Council introduced the Clean Air Zone to tackle the primary source of the air pollutant nitrogen dioxide, which had been persistently above the legal limit.
“Since the introduction of the Clean Air Zone the percentage of non-compliant vehicles travelling through the city centre has reduced from 15.2% in June 2021 to 3.1% in June 2026, which means a significant number of people have changed their behaviours and the numbers of the highest polluting vehicles entering the Zone has decreased.
“Most importantly, the levels of nitrogen dioxide in the zone have fallen by, on average, 22.5% since 2019.
“The Clean Air Zone remains the Council’s most significant intervention to improve air quality. However, it forms part of a wider programme of measures designed to reduce air pollution and raise awareness of the impact poor air quality can have on public health.
“The volume of PCNs issued on a section of Corporation Street reflect the fact that this is a stretch of the A38 between Dartmouth Circus and Lancaster Circus, which connects directly to the A38(M) Aston Expressway, a motorway that extends into and through Birmingham city centre.
On average, more than 100,000 vehicles travel through the Clean Air Zone every day, which would equate to over 30m vehicles per year.
“It is important to note that the majority of vehicles travelling through the Zone use this particular stretch of road, which means that the number of PCNs issued over 12 months at this location represent less than 1% of the vehicles travelling through the Zone.”
