Bedford Park School Street Fines Exceed Half a Million Pounds
PCNs being issued every seven minutes during restriction
The signs for the restriction by Orchard House School
October 2, 2026
School street schemes in Bedford Park have generated more than half a million pounds in fines in the 2025/26 academic year, according to newly released data obtained through a Freedom of Information request.
The figures show an extraordinary rate of enforcement around Orchard House School and Southfield Primary, with penalty charge notices (PCNs) being issued at intervals of just a few minutes during restricted hours.
The school street at Orchard House, introduced last October despite some opposition, has produced 2,503 PCNs in the current academic year. At £160 per fine — before early-payment discounts — the face value exceeds £400,000. Because the restrictions operate only on school days and for a total of 110 minutes per day, the numbers equate to 17 fines daily, or one every seven minutes.
Southfield Primary’s scheme, launched earlier in September, has generated 2,010 PCNs, raising more than £320,000. Here, the rate is one fine every nine minutes.
Earlier figures show that the Borough of Ealing issued 115,766 school-street PCNs in the calendar year up to November, with a face value of more than £18.5 million. Since the first school streets were introduced in 2020, over a quarter of a million fines have been issued, generating more than £15 million.
Ealing Council says it takes extensive steps to inform drivers of school street restrictions, including letters to households, advance warning notices, statutory signage, lamp-column notices and grace periods during which warnings rather than fines are issued.
A council spokesperson said when figures were released earlier this year the schemes are designed to “create a safer environment for children, young people and their families to walk, cycle or scoot to and from school,” and that PCN numbers have risen because the number of school streets has expanded to 50. The council expects fines to fall over time as awareness increases.
Residents can still give feedback and request reviews via schoolstreets@ealing.gov.uk.
Like Reading Articles Like This? Help Us Produce More This site remains committed to providing local community news and public interest journalism. Articles such as the one above are integral to what we do. We aim to feature as much as possible on local societies, charities based in the area, fundraising efforts by residents, community-based initiatives and even helping people find missing pets. We’ve always done that and won’t be changing, in fact we’d like to do more. However, the readership that these stories generates is often below that needed to cover the cost of producing them. Our financial resources are limited and the local media environment is intensely competitive so there is a constraint on what we can do. We are therefore asking our readers to consider offering financial support to these efforts. Any money given will help support community and public interest news and the expansion of our coverage in this area. A suggested monthly payment is £8 but we would be grateful for any amount for instance if you think this site offers the equivalent value of a subscription to a daily printed newspaper you may wish to consider £20 per month. If neither of these amounts is suitable for you then contact info@neighbournet.com and we can set up an alternative. All payments are made through a secure web site. One-off donations are also appreciated. Choose The Amount You Wish To Contribute. If you do support us in this way we’d be interested to hear what kind of articles you would like to see more of on the site – send your suggestions to the editor. For businesses we offer the chance to be a corporate sponsor of community content on the site. For £30 plus VAT per month you will be the designated sponsor of at least one article a month with your logo appearing if supplied. If there is a specific community group or initiative you’d like to support we can make sure your sponsorship is featured on related content for a one off payment of £50 plus VAT. All payments are made through a secure web site. |