Free Traffic Legal Advice

When was your satnav last updated ? Does the map display show the route over the new bridge ?
The PCN is a typical one for road user charging locations, nothing unusual in it except that it asks you for the crossing toll as well as the penalty charge. A 2018 case at th e Traffic Penalty Tribunal involving the DART charge, (the Dartford crossing at Dartford near London), the adjudicator pointed out that asking for the crossing toll as well as the penalty charge was not permitted in the powers granted to the authority by the regulations.

Whilst you can submit representations on signage, I suspect these will not succeed and you'd have to take them to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal for a decision and risk the full PCN penalty. As I cross this bridge fairly regularly, I can assure you that prominent signs are in place advising that a toll is payable. Would the argument about the content of the PCN succeed ? Well it could do and you would be able to cite the case mentioned above.

So if you want to go for the double-or-quits gamble you will first need to submit representations against the PCN. Only when Halton Council reject those reps can an appeal be registered at the Traffic Penalty Tribunal.

https://www.merseyflow.co.uk/pay-for-crossing

You really do need to get rapidly up-to-speed on road user charging locations. Merseyflow is one where you got the PCN, then there is the Dartford Crossing, the varioud low emission zones, and the London ULEZ, none of which have toll booths, payment is made on-line.

Q : Does Waze show the Merseyflow bridges on your car ?  They are both toll bridges now, the old bridge used to be free.

Assuming you came along the A562 from Liverpool Airport you would have passed these signs.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/McE39oQKaLNeePpS9

https://maps.app.goo.gl/JXpMbX3169VKYsQ2A

https://maps.app.goo.gl/NoYeokKGivQeeFkf7

https://maps.app.goo.gl/ZD8A9UXzzQ82GWzk9

https://maps.app.goo.gl/eoezNupLre8hGZCm7

https://maps.app.goo.gl/2LApgYLWaDZhw1Gt6

https://maps.app.goo.gl/iEhatHgnKhhiSLSe6

So I think putting "I didn't see any signs" in any representations would not favour a result !

If you really do want to fight this, then you could take them to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal on the grounds of "procedural impropriety".  The Road User Charging Schemes regulations of 2013 define what goes into a PCN in Regulation 7.
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/1783/regulation/7/made
So also requesting the unpaid toll as well as the penalty charge in a document that is solely concerned with a penalty charge is unlawful. It is akin to adding in a parking charge to a PCN for a parking charge contravention.
An adjudication at the Traffic Penalty Tribunal in 2018 recently came to light. The case concerned payment of the toll for the Dartford Crossing near London.
The key sentence written by the adjudicator is this: -
"There is no power in Regulation 7 for the PCN to require the road user charge to be paid in
addition to the penalty charge."

The TPT decision is attached







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