Congestion charge penalty hike

The Evening Standard reports that London Mayor Ken Livingstone wants to increase the fine for people who do not pay the congestion charge for driving their cars into central London. The congestion zone covers a swath of central London from Clerkenwell, the City of London and Borough in the east to South Kensington, Holland Park and Notting Hill in the west and operates from 7am-6pm Monday-Friday.

Cars entering this zone must pay £8 per day or currently face a £100 fine, the Standard says the Mayor wants to up this to £120 per day. The congestion charge can be paid online, at selected shops, petrol stations and car parks, by post, by telephone or by SMS text message if you’ve previously registered. You have up to midnight of the following day to pay the charge although it will rise to £10 if you do pay it the day after driving into the zone.

If you forget to pay or choose not to you’ll be issued with a Penalty Charge Notice for £100 which is reduced to £50 if paid within 14 days but which rises to £150 if you haven’t taken care of it after 28 days. Miss paying three Penalty Charge Notices and your car can be clamped and towed away anywhere in Greater London.

One bit of good new for drivers is that Transport for London have suspended the congestion charge on the 27, 28 and 31 December, the working days between Christmas Day and New Years Day, when traffic should be a lot lighter anyway because the majority of people will be off of work for the Christmas holidays.