Single mother-of-eight who claims £2,000 a month in state handouts has £600 of bus lane fines slashed because she says she cant afford them Marie Buchan, 31, was hit by 10 bus lane fine tickets in just one week She strayed into Birmingham bus lane while her daughter was in hospital Council has cut the £600 bill to £180 after an appeal from Miss Buchan She claimed financial hardship, and that the lane was poorly signposted She does not want to pay the last £180 and is considering further appeal Ms Buchan lives with her eight children aged from four months to 12 years She receives £500 a week in benefits, which was reduced from £582 New Birmingham cameras responsible for issuing more than 80,000 fines By LUCY CROSSLEY PUBLISHED: 12:15, 3 February 2014 | UPDATED: 14:41, 3 February 2014 83 shares 175View comments A single mother with eight children who receives £2,000 a month in benefits has had a string of bus lane fines slashed because she claims she cant afford to pay them. Marie Buchan, 31 racked up 10 tickets in just one week after straying into the bus lane when her youngest daughter Olivia, then aged two months, was admitted to hospital with bronchitis. Ms Buchan, whose children are aged between four months and 12 years old, receives £500 a month in state handouts and said the £600 of fines left her facing financial ruin. +3 Fined: Marie Buchan, 31, from Selly Oak in Birmingham, claims £2,000 a month in benefits and has had a string of bus lane fines slashed because she says she cant afford to pay them She was caught by bus lane cameras in Birmingham city centre, which have issued more than 80,000 fines since they were installed in September - to the anger of thousands of motorists ordered to pay the £60 sums. Having appealed on both grounds of financial hardship and that, like many who have complained, the bus lane signs are inadequate and easy to miss, Birmingham City Council has withdrawn seven of Ms Buchans penalty notices, cutting £420 from her bill. However, the council says she must still pay £180 after she was penalised while taking Olivia to Birmingham Children’s Hospital and received the 10 fine notices in the post more than a week later. I made a genuine mistake, said Ms Buchan of Selley Oak. I was desperate to get to the hospital and had a screaming child in the car. I was not aware there were bus lanes until the fines came through the post. More... Stealth cameras to enforce 70mph limit on motorways: Devices will target speeding motorists on M1, M6 and M25 Two-thirds of Britons think benefits system is unfit for purpose and should be replaced by tougher regulations, new poll reveals Forget bargains, those cast-offs now cost almost as much as new: Have charity shops grown too greedy? I am obviously happy that they have withdrawn seven, but do not understand why they do not just withdraw the lot. I have been back to the hospital since and now I know where the lanes are. I have been round the ring road several times to avoid them. Ms Buchan says is is reluctant to pay the final £180 and although she has been put in touch with a lawyer she is wary of taking legal action as she may have to pay out more money. She is now considering her options for a further appeal to the independent Traffic Penalty Tribunal. Ms Buchan shares a three-bedroom house with her children Tia, 12, Leah, 11, Latoya, eight, Joshua, seven, Alisha, five, Mikayla, three, Amelia, two, and four-month-old Olivia. +3 Family home: Ms Buchan shares a three-bedroom house with her children (left to right)Joshua, seven, Mikayla, three, Tia, 12, baby Olivia, Leah, 11, Amelia, two, and five-year-old Alisha She has had an on-off relationship with the children’s father since they were teenagers. Councillor Peter Douglas Osborn has raised the case with city hall chiefs and called for the fines to be cancelled. The council should just admit that the signs are difficult to see and do something about it, he said. More than 80,000 fines of £60 were issued by the ten bus lane cameras between their installation in September and mid-December. The total is now likely to be much higher. About a third of those have been snapped by the camera southbound on Priory Queensway - with dozens of motorists complaining they could not see the signs early enough to avoid the lanes without performing dangerous manoeuvres. Many of those were, like Ms Buchan, visitors to the Children’s Hospital. The independent Traffic Penalty Tribunal is due to hear a string of appeals over the fines in Birmingham on February 12 and 13, while adjudicator Stephen Knapp has written to the council asking why certain signs do not appear to comply with Government regulations. +3 Penalty charge: Birmingham City Council has withdrawn seven of Ms Buchans 10 penalty notices, cutting £420 from her £600 bill A spokeswoman for Birmingham City Council said: Ms Buchan’s fines for contravening the bus lanes were issued correctly and legally, however we decided to make some changes from November 1 in cases where motorists were activating multiple trigger points during a journey contravening a bus lane. As a result of this, the council made the decision to exercise discretion and enforce just one penalty charge where multiple penalties were incurred in the same location. Ms Buchan was originally issued with six tickets on 5 November, two on 6 November and two on 12 November. As a result of the changes we made, this was reduced to one for each day. She now has 28 days to pay the penalty charges or lodge an appeal. Ms Buchan hit the headlines in December when her benefits were cut from £582 a week to £500 a week in September after the government introduced a cap on handouts. She said the money was not enough for her family to survive on. Miss Buchan, a tenant of Bourneville Village Trust in the south-west of Birmingham, used to receive £385 a week in child tax credit, £100 child benefit and £97 income support. But the benefits cap, introduced earlier this year by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to reduce the burden on the state, limited her handouts to £500 a week. Ms Buchan also said her home was not big enough for her family and that she has applied for a bigger one. She sleeps with three of her children in one bedroom of her £200,000 semi, while another four share a second room and Joshua has the third to himself. Share or comment on this article Read more: dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2550905/Single-mother-claims-2-000-month-state-handouts-600-bus-lane-fines-slashed-says-afford-them.html#ixzz2sH740MIB Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
Posted on: Mon, 03 Feb 2014 15:55:40 +0000