Congestion Charge

[Claire G]

I was in London the other night and didn't get a chance to pay the congestion charge before I went to the theatre. I came out about 10.45 and went to pay at the machine in the NCP, all the signs on the machine said the charge was a fiver, but the display kept asking me for £10. I gave up trying and went to pay at a petrol station on the way home.

Apparently if you pay after a certain time you get clobbered a tenner!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Was not a happy bunny, especially as it's not particularly busy that time of night <grrrr> :tsktsk:

[BESTY]

wouldnt like to live there,the only congestion charge i get is at the chemist for a stuffy nose :P

[Matthew_McNally]

goes up to £10 after 10pm Claire - to discourage people paying very late (presumably so the machines can go to bed early? )

I could not get the machines to work - tried to pay in London Gateway services machine says;

- enter reg

- insert credit card

- remove credit card

- enter arcance combination of coloured buttons to indicate what type of charge

then it did nothing.

no beeps, no reciept, no messages - nothing.

so I wander off, bemused, not sure if I have paid or not.

2 days later - £40 fine.

You can't ring them to dispute, everything has to be in writing - so I fill the form in and send it back.

They write back, no record of payment at that machine - by this time the credit card bill had come through, and I hadn't paid - so had to stump up the £40.

:tsktsk: :tsktsk: :tsktsk:

[SteveAudioX]

All part of the BIG CON...

Drive in.. No machines allow you to pay...

So by the time you finished, it's gone 10pm... Wait till after Midnight, then see what happens to your fine

[flotsam]

Of course it's all part of the big con. This is Labour!

Prescott was a member of the RMT when they came to power and has seized back Railtrack so that Bob Crowe can create thousands of bogus jobs.

Meanwhile Prescott puts a bus lane on the M4 whilst Red Ken imposes the congestion charge.

Just who is this congestion charge supposed to benefit? The ones who suffer are the drivers and yet they're the ones being made to cough up for roads we've already paid for four times over! Only a quarter of the road tax goes towards roads.

In Italy there are special lanes for car sharers without an additional tax which means less congestion without hitting shops or drivers.

Red Ken denies it's just about raising taxes because that's exactly what it's all about.

[Matthew_McNally]

No machines allow you to pay...

serious Steve?

I always pay over the 'net now - only tried the machine that first time

[ifraz]

I've heard rumours that they are going to spread this congestion charge idea to other larger cities in the UK.

Nottingham City Council are looking into it.

[gazza200]

I've heard rumours that they are going to spread this congestion charge idea to other larger cities in the UK.

No doubt within a few years most of us will have it, I had been warned about this when I took my daughter to London to see a show, even phoned the hotel before setting off to see if they were in one of these zones. Still got stung for a tenner though, Sat nav took me to our hotel fine but... the road I needed to go down was blocked (roadworks) so by the time me and the nav had sorted ourselves out and got to the hotel I wasn't sure where I had been. When we asked at the hotel about the charge they gave us a number to phone (nothing said about phoning before a certain time) went to the show and phoned when we got back. They couldn't tell me if we had been in one of these areas but made it clear that if I had and didn't pay now it would rise day by day. Ended up giving them a tenner just to be sure Its a con but one we are all gonna have to get used to :yack: We're British.... should be used to it by now!

[SteveAudioX]

Matthew.. I'm serious.

My girlfriend was out one night with her M8's and experienced this too..

They rang me up, and I managed to do it on line for them straight away They rang me at 9.35pm I paid up for them by 9.40pm.. They looked at machines in newsagents and broken machines etc... emm