Free Traffic Legal Advice
General discussion => The Flame Pit => Topic started by: TheJase on December 08, 2024, 09:28:08 am
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There is no mechanism to refund a daily congestion charge licence. If you ask, they will say there is no data held to confirm whether you entered the zone or not, because number plate reads are discarded if a vehicle is licensed to enter the zone (there is no business reason for TFL to retain such data). ANPR hits are only kept for vehicles that are in contravention, so that a PCN can be issued. This means that if you pay for a licence, they won't refund it as they'll say you could have driven in the zone and they have no way of knowing that you didn't.
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Posting here because there's no PCN involved with this situation.
I drove into London on Friday and planned my journey to avoid the congestion charging zone. I prepaid the ULEZ before heading in.
I skirted the edge of CCZ twice, when crossing Vauxhall Bridge and again when crossing Tower Bridge, as shown on these maps:
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/dir/51.4858716,-0.1498458/51.4792874,-0.1056932/@51.4799278,-0.1330458,15z/data=!4m2!4m1!3e0
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/dir/51.4988742,-0.0559967/51.5107674,-0.0405668/@51.5061703,-0.0694216,15.13z/data=!4m2!4m1!3e0
These maps accurately show my route when at the edge of the CCZ. There were no wrong turns into any street inside the zone. At all other times I was well away from the boundary of the CCZ.
When I got home that evening, I checked the TfL site just to be on the safe side and was surprised to see that there was an unpaid Congestion Charge listed as well as the paid ULEZ charge. The Congestion Charge was paid for me by my brother, as my trip into London was to help him with something. He didn't tell me until after he had paid it. It's now showing as paid on the TfL site.
Yesterday I reviewed my dash cam footage for my entire journey within London and am 100% certain I didn't enter the CCZ. I've contacted TfL via the Make an Enquiry form on their website, asking them to review when and where my vehicle was detected as entering the CCZ and am waiting to hear back.
I thought I'd ask here whether anyone else has ever had their vehicles falsely flagged as entering the CCZ and if they had any joy in challenging it and getting the charge refunded.
It's only £15, but it's the principle! TfL will happily slap you with PCNs, charge certificates, orders for recovery and bailiffs for not paying, so I feel like I should definitely fight back if I shouldn't have been required to pay the charge in the first place.