Croydon Council has refunded just £520,951, or approximately 4%, of the more than £13 million collected from drivers through Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) that were subsequently ruled unlawful. The council was compelled to withdraw all six of its LTNs in March after a High Court judge determined that their primary purpose was to generate revenue. This ruling came after the schemes had been in place for a trial period and then made permanent.
Documents obtained by the Daily Mail reveal that the council collected £7,210,328.18 from LTN fines between March 2024 and February 2026. An additional £5,828,136 was generated during a trial period for candidate LTNs from November 2023 to March 2024, bringing the total revenue to over £13 million. During this period, the LTNs generated an average of £300,000 per month, with one scheme on Derby Road junction with Clarendon Road alone bringing in nearly £250,000 in a single month during the trial phase.
Following the High Court's decision in March, Croydon Council stated that motorists could claim refunds via its website. However, it did not commit to returning the full revenue generated by the schemes. As of the report, drivers had submitted 6,167 applications for refunds. [
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Mayor Jason Perry, who is a Conservative, stated that the unpopular LTN schemes were imposed by the previous Labour administration in 2020 with the backing of Sadiq Khan. Perry noted that he inherited the schemes alongside a financially strained council with anticipated fine income built into its budget. He asserted that his administration acted immediately after the High Court ruling, accepted the judgment, and abandoned any plans for a lengthy appeal. Perry encouraged eligible motorists to submit refund claims, characterizing Labour's approach as treating drivers as a "cash cow."
Legal action against the LTNs was spearheaded by resident Karen Lawrence, who expressed satisfaction that the courts had validated the community's belief that the schemes were primarily for financial gain. Some residents shared accounts of being pursued by debt collectors for hundreds of pounds, with limited assistance from the council. One such case involved a resident fined for an urgent GP appointment while recovering from surgery, with their daughter describing the council's handling and the debt collection agency's methods as "absolutely disgusting."
Open Our Roads, a resident group, expressed shock at the revenue generated by Croydon's LTNs, suggesting the figures indicated the schemes were not fulfilling their stated objectives. The group commended the current administration for establishing refund processes for wrongfully collected fines. [
Mr Justice Pepperall's High Court judgment cited evidence of Mayor Perry criticizing the LTNs while in opposition, having pledged to remove them. However, the judge noted that after Perry's election in May 2022, his stance shifted due to financial considerations. The judgment indicated that Perry believed he could not remove the schemes because the previous administration had based budgets on the assumed income from them. Perry later clarified that he never pledged to remove all LTNs, acknowledging it was not a commitment he could uphold, but stated that any future schemes should not rely on fining residents for funding.
Croydon Council has faced financial difficulties, declaring bankruptcy three times since 2020, the same year it began trialing LTNs before making them permanent in 2024. In the previous year, the national government reportedly dropped plans for reforms that would have limited councils' power to implement LTNs and 20mph zones, a move characterized by some as a "secret war on drivers."