Congestion confusion

A Royal Mail worker has been ordered to pay 31 London congestion charge bills even though he has not visited the city since 1981. David Timothy, 47, from Brecon in Powys, said the charges, currently standing at £2,480, dated back to a five-month period in 2004. But he said had only owned the car identified in the bills for a year. (i.e. since 2005)

Regulator, Transport for London (TFL), said it was possible a technical hitch was to blame and it was investigating.

Mr Timothy said all 31 congestion charge bills, which could rise to a total of more than £4,000 if they remain unpaid, were delivered last week. "They all had photographs showing the car driving along various well-known routes such as London Bridge," he added.

"The bills date back to a five-month period in 2004, but I can't believe that TFL didn't pick up that I'd only owned the car for a year."

Mr Timothy said he had sent a copy of his log book to TFL which proved how long he had owned his Ford Fiesta. He said he was not the owner of the car in 2004 and was reluctant to pay the bills.

"I wouldn't mind, but I haven't been to London since I toured with Talgarth male voice choir 25 years ago," added Mr Timothy.

TFL said 120,000 vehicles a day passed through the congestion charge zone and it issued about 4,600 penalty notices a day. A spokesman said information about offending vehicles came from the DVLA.

"It's possible the information held at the DVLA was incorrect, but Mr Timothy took the right step in contacting us and now we're investigating the outstanding penalty notices," he said.


This however pales into insignificance at the US diplomatic staff in London who ran up unpaid congestion charge fees of £271,000 in the first 6 months of 2006 .

again picture blogger's being an arse ........... grrrrrrrrr