Finally got a car in London, as you may have seen. Drove home before Easter and returned to a £60 penalty charge.
I knew I'd been through a congestion charge zone on the way home but assumed there was a reasonable timeline to pay.
Turns out you have until midnight to pay or you get a £60 fine. I'm livid at this, no notification that you've used the zone, no notice of how much you owe, just an almost immediate £60 fine. I have no grounds to appeal as ignorance to these time lines is not a legitimate defense.
I absolutely detest driving in London anyway, but the thought of paying for the CCZ or worse getting fined exactly like you have puts me right off. Thankfully the only times I have had to drive into London were before all this nonsense.
How exactly do they monitor this then, surely the surveillance setup for it must be insane?
Yep, got the letter contains a photo of my car and a close up of the registration with street name and time stamp.
Phoned up to say wtf, but there's apparently no flex, 12 hours or £60. Basically you have to pre-pay or they rape you.
As you said, ignorance is no excuse. You drove through the congestion charge so you should have looked up and researched how the scheme runs. I will agree, though, that London is a sh*t place to drive around.
Quote from: Adrock on April 12, 2012, 22:05:37 PM
London is a sh*t place.
Fixed
Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk 2
Quote from: Adrock on April 12, 2012, 22:05:37 PM
As you said, ignorance is no excuse. You drove through the congestion charge so you should have looked up and researched how the scheme runs. I will agree, though, that London is a sh*t place to drive around.
I agree, what frustrates me is the timeline in which you have to do this. I only ended up in the congestion charge zone because I misread my satnav and took a wrong turn, so I could not have pre-planned being in it. I had assumed, incorrectly that it was the same as every other UK charge / tax / payment, because there is no reason it shouldn't be. Once I was back in London after the weekend I phoned the congestion charge line but by then it was too late, they dont exclude non working or bank holidays from the payment timeline.
The only figure I can find is that 1.4 million congestion charge penalty notices were issued in 2009, clearly the system isn't clear.
London is an awesome place to drive around - a blast through the dead streets of the city on a Sunday afternoon is great fun :evil:
Unlucky on the ignorance front though... ;D
I had a similar thing last year, but was just a shops parking thing. We have a Sainsburys and ALDI near us. Kathryn said it was 2 hours free, It's 1.5 hours. We went to Spain for a week and I came back to find a letter demanding £70 as I'd been in the car park for 1 hour and 45 minutes :(
It was annoying and frustrating but ulitmately you just have to take it on the chin and admit that it's your car, you are/were driving, and ultimately you're responsible. If in doubt, check. Can't really blame Kathryn either as I wasn't sure at the time and could have either double checked the signage or parked further away somewhere else.
Those are private owned and unenforcable fines, you should have ignored it.
Quote from: zpyder on April 15, 2012, 11:42:53 AM
I had a similar thing last year, but was just a shops parking thing. We have a Sainsburys and ALDI near us. Kathryn said it was 2 hours free, It's 1.5 hours. We went to Spain for a week and I came back to find a letter demanding £70 as I'd been in the car park for 1 hour and 45 minutes :(
It was annoying and frustrating but ulitmately you just have to take it on the chin and admit that it's your car, you are/were driving, and ultimately you're responsible. If in doubt, check. Can't really blame Kathryn either as I wasn't sure at the time and could have either double checked the signage or parked further away somewhere else.
doh!
if you phone up the store and say you were shopping, they'll let you off with those ones!
Quote from: Clock'd 0Ne on April 12, 2012, 20:09:34 PM
I absolutely detest driving in London anyway, but the thought of paying for the CCZ or worse getting fined exactly like you have puts me right off. Thankfully the only times I have had to drive into London were before all this nonsense.
How exactly do they monitor this then, surely the surveillance setup for it must be insane?
lots of cameras - cameras at all places where you'd enter and leave the congestion zone etc...
I was curious too - seems a lot of it is developed in the same language we use at work for high volume FX trade processing for banks...
They monitor box junction occupation and bus lane users too, congestion is big business in london.
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One of the reasons I don't go to London. I pay enough in taxes and won't be bullied into using the scum shuttle.
Sent whilst sat on the toilet.
I came to hate London as an entity, far too big, far too many people.
Sent from my computer while picking my nose with my left index finger :P
"Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford."
— Samuel Johnson
Quote from: Dave on April 22, 2012, 20:22:06 PM
"Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford."
— Samuel Johnson
Utter testicles.
Quote from: soopahfly on April 22, 2012, 20:31:42 PM
Quote from: Dave on April 22, 2012, 20:22:06 PM
"Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford."
— Samuel Johnson
Utter testicles.
Samuel Johnson a true knob
Edited for clarity - Serious
"London is a modern Babylon."
Benjamin Disraeli
"I came to London. It had become the center of my world and I had worked hard to come to it. And I was lost."
V. S. Naipaul
"By seeing London, I have seen as much of life as the world can show"
Samuel Johnson
"I do not think there is anything deserving the name of society to be found out of London."
William Hazlitt
:D
Quote from: soopahfly on April 22, 2012, 21:42:20 PM
Quote from: Serious on April 22, 2012, 21:35:08 PM
Quote from: soopahfly on April 22, 2012, 20:31:42 PM
Quote from: Dave on April 22, 2012, 20:22:06 PM
"Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford."
— Samuel Johnson
Utter testicles.
Spoken by a knob
Is that supposed to be funny?
Was a continuation of what you were saying, not a comment on yourself. I've edited my previous post for clarity. It was supposed to read
"Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford."
— Samuel Johnson
Utter testicles - spoken by a knob
So yes, if it had came out right it might have been funny. I was calling Samuel Johnson a knob, not you. Sorry for any confusion.