Trapped! Britain’s Most Expensive Box Junction Is Fining Drivers £1,800 a Day!
Imagine being fined £160 – not for speeding, not for parking on double yellows, not even for driving in a bus lane – but for doing absolutely nothing more than being in the wrong bit of yellow paint for a few seconds. Welcome to Kingston Road, South-West London – home of Britain’s most expensive yellow box junction. Or as locals call it: the cash cow!
A £451,405 Goldmine for the Council
Between January and August 2025, the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames issued a staggering 6,568 Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) at this single junction.
That’s an average of 27 fines a day, totalling a jaw-dropping £451,405 in just eight months. Or if you prefer, that’s £1,800 every single day – all from one small patch of tarmac covered in yellow criss-cross lines.
And it’s not some major highway interchange or accident blackspot. Nope – it’s a fairly ordinary bit of suburban road between Elm Road and Westbury Road, where two yellow boxes sit back-to-back like a pair of glittering mousetraps for motorists.
The Rules Are Simple… Until They’re Not
Now, the Highway Code is pretty clear about box junctions: “You must not enter the yellow box until your exit is clear.” The only exception is if you’re turning right and waiting for oncoming traffic to pass.
Sounds simple enough. But this particular layout – a double box – adds an extra layer of chaos. You can legally enter the first box when the exit appears clear, only for the car ahead to hesitate or stop… leaving you straddling the second one.
Even if you pause for half a second, that’s enough for the camera to flash and the fine to land on your doormat days later.
The Local View: “It’s a Cash Cow”
No surprises then that locals are fuming. Roland Head, who’s run The Real Butchers next to the junction for over four decades, calls it exactly what it looks like – “a cash cow.”
He says the council won’t change anything because “it’s making them money.” And you can see why they’d be reluctant – this junction alone could fund a small department’s annual budget.
The council insists it’s all about safety and traffic flow – not profit. But then they’ve also had to install a bollard outside the butcher’s to stop desperate drivers mounting the pavement to avoid the box entirely. Yes, really.
When Safety Measures Cause Gridlock
Ironically, even ambulance drivers from a depot just half a mile away are reportedly getting stuck because motorists are too scared to move into the box – worried about triggering a fine.
That’s right – the rule designed to keep traffic flowing is now making people too scared to move.
Classic bureaucratic brilliance.
The RAC Weighs In: Oversized and Overzealous
The RAC and chartered engineer Sam Wright have both been warning about this for years.
Their studies found that 98 out of 100 of the most fined box junctions in London and Cardiff were larger than necessary – in fact, the average one was 50% bigger than regulations require.
That means many are literally overdrawn – not to improve safety, but to increase the likelihood of entrapment. As RAC policy chief Rod Dennis put it: “A box junction that generates a small number of fines is working as it should. The huge number of penalties at certain sites should set alarm bells ringing.”
You don’t say.
The Bigger Picture – From Local Trap to National Trend
Until 2022, only London and Cardiff could fine drivers for box junction offences. But now, every council in England can apply for enforcement powers.
And surprise, surprise – many have. Outside London, Manchester comes close with £446k in box junction fines across six sites. Medway Council earned £145k, and Buckinghamshire collected £139k. Meanwhile, Leeds managed just £605 – suggesting some councils are using these rules sensibly, while others are clearly making it rain.
It’s a pattern we’ve seen time and again: something introduced for safety becomes an easy revenue stream once cameras get involved.
The BrownCarGuy Verdict
Let’s be clear – box junctions themselves aren’t evil. When they’re used properly, they help traffic move and keep junctions safe.
But when design flaws, oversized layouts, and overzealous enforcement combine, they stop being about safety and start being about income generation.
A single junction pulling in nearly half a million pounds isn’t a success story – it’s a symptom of a system that’s lost sight of balance.
If councils truly want to keep traffic moving, maybe they should focus less on catching drivers out – and more on fixing poor road design, timing lights correctly, and educating drivers about how the rule actually works.
Until then, one thing’s certain: Britain’s drivers aren’t just boxed in – they’re being boxed out of fairness.
What Do You Think?
Have you ever been fined for stopping in a yellow box – even for a moment?
Was it fair, or were you trapped by bad design?
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