KINGSTON YELLOW JUNCTION BOX IS UK’S CHAMPION REVENUE EARNER
Between January and August this year, it generated just over £450,000 from drivers who entered the yellow boxes illegally, often unintentionally and caused by the actions of another driver, cyclist or pedestrian, says the newspaper.
During the first eight months of this year, the council issued 6,568 penalty charge notices (PCNs) for the junction, which is made up of two boxes on Kingston Road at the junction between Elm Road and Westbury Road, approximately 27 penalties a day.
It cost drivers a total of £451,405 in PCNs, according to the Freedom of Information Act inquiry.
The Highway Code states that drivers must not enter a yellow box until they can drive over it without needing to stop, to help traffic flow on busy roads.
Many, however, believe the yellow box fines can be unfair, when people have to stop because of somebody else’s bad, or unexpected, driving.
The two yellow boxes at the Kingston Road junction have been in place since 2015, but fines were not introduced until July 2020.
Shortly afterwards, the council added a bollard to the pavement just in front of The Real Butchers to deter motorists from driving off the road in their desperation to avoid a penalty.
The Kingston Road junction is less than half a mile from New Malden ambulance depot, which means ambulances often get stuck behind other cars unwilling to move into a yellow box for fear of being fined.
Since April, the fine for a yellow box junction is £160 in all London boroughs, reduced to £80 if paid in the first 14 days. Outside London, it is £70 reduced to £35.
There is no fixed minimum time a car must be stationary in a yellow box to be issued with a PCN.
According to the newspaper one driver stopped in a yellow box junction in Waltham Forest, east London, for 1.1 seconds and was fined £130 in April this year. He appealed, but lost.
The Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames said all income generated from PCNs is ring-fenced for essential traffic and parking management, with any excess funds used for other priority transport-related initiatives, including the funding of the Freedom Pass for elderly and disabled residents.
A spokesman said: “These two yellow box junctions are in place to prevent traffic from blocking each junction, and to allow vehicles to enter and exit side roads, and to allow clear sight of pedestrians and cyclists to motorists who are turning right into Elm Road, to improve safety for all road and pavement users.”
The council, which supplied the £451,405 figure for the Kingston Road junction, now disputes the claim that it has the highest revenue in the UK, arguing that it is two boxes, rather than one.
In 2022, the government introduced new legislation that enables all councils across England to apply for enforcement powers, and there are now 595 enforced yellow box junctions in the UK.
Yellow box junction fines are becoming more common. Across the 39 councils that responded to the FoI request, 387,176 PCNs were issued in 2024, which generated total revenue of £21.5 million, compared with 342,663 in 2023.
Redbridge council in east London has 68 boxes, the highest number of boxes enforced out of all the councils. Since 2022, it has made more than £10 million.
Drivers who are issued a PCN for stopping in a box junction can dispute the fine. Of the 6,568 PCNs issued for the junction at Kingston Road this year, just 62 were appealed — less than 1 per cent. Of the appeals, 19 were accepted, 17 were refused, four were not contested, one was withdrawn and 21 remain undecided.
Under the pseudonym of Yellow Box Guru, Sam Wright, 48, has helped hundreds of people avoid being fined for entering a yellow box junction illegally in the past 12 months.
Wright, who used to work in the design and approval of yellow boxes for Transport for London, shares tips and case studies on TikTok, where he has amassed more than eight million views.
He said there are several ways to successfully appeal. If you enter the box with a clear space to exit but then circumstances change — for example, another vehicle changes lanes and takes your space, or if you had to stop to let a pedestrian cross the road — you have not committed an offence.