ULEZ appeal advice.

sevenhills

SRosey wrote: »

Maybe next time someone runs over and kills a drunk pedestrian that’s stumbled into the road, or a death defying cyclist they can claim the defence of “sorry, I was too busy looking out for a ULEZ sign”

I live in West Yorkshire and I have not been to London in over 5 years, I was aware of these new regulations over a year ago. Although years ago I drove into the congestion zone unaware; my company just paid the fee.

Roland_Sausage

I live in Scotland and probably haven’t been to London for about 18 years, and I still knew about the ULEZ zone. It’s been pretty well publicised.

born_again

It's £12.50.....

How much is your time worth?

Pay up, move on and remember in the future.

CardinalWolsey

Ignoring the turn that this thread has taken, it is interesting that the Dartford Crossing allow you a first time offence of not paying - meaning if you forget / didn't realise (despite the massive signage that they have), they write to you with the penalty notice - but write it off if you phone them up and pay the crossing charge (but as above, if you're a first time offender only).
Why they can manage to do it but TFL cannot (other than via policy)?

Aylesbury_Duck

CardinalWolsey wrote: »

Ignoring the turn that this thread has taken, it is interesting that the Dartford Crossing allow you a first time offence of not paying - meaning if you forget / didn't realise (despite the massive signage that they have), they write to you with the penalty notice - but write it off if you phone them up and pay the crossing charge (but as above, if you're a first time offender only).
Why they can manage to do it but TFL cannot (other than via policy)?

They certainly could do it but I suspect TfL have considered it to be another layer of administration they don't have to incur. Plus, I could imagine widespread abuse of the policy, with lots of vehicles having "first time offenders" at the wheel. It would probably undermine the scheme.

robatwork

What it boils down to is that you posted asking if we (random people on a forum) thought that you (random driver) stood a chance appealing to TFL's discretion to let you off - you even mentioned "black and white".

You've been advised multiple opinions that your appeal grounds are weak to non-existent, indeed the offence is "black" in those terms.

A later post you sent stated the original PCN was corrupt. People here are simply going by what you say, and nothing you said would lead a reasonable person to suspect it's corrupt or even incorrect.

Just because you don't like the advice doesn't mean these random people are all wrong.

David_Boring

I feel for you SRosey. We got a PCN having visited London for a few hours in December 2019. I last drove in London 4 years ago and live 250 miles away. Funnily enough therefore we knew absolutely nothing about the ULEZ and even if I had seen a sign, it wouldn't have meant a thing to me. No, the signs are not obvious and no they don't state anything about what the repercussions of driving in the zone are. Simply stating something doesn't tell the full story - you will notice most 'you must not do this' or 'if you don't do this then' signs will include details of the fine etc. The ULEZ signs do not but like I said given my limited experience of driving in London, it was more of priority to not crash than keep my eye out for obscure signs.
We drove into London, parked and then two hours later set of driving back following sat nav and were diverted into the ULEZ following traffic issues. We must have been in it for 10 minutes.
To receive a £160 fine is incredibly frustrating. We obviously appealed but it wasn't accepted so we're stuck with paying £80.
Personally I don't think it's fair and have all sorts of issues with it however my main one is, where do they get £160 from? The charge is I believe £12.50. Whatever the rights and wrongs, I can't argue we didn't drive in the ULEZ so if they had got in touch and said 'you have driven in the ULEZ etc etc' and charged £12.50 or even £20 say to cover admin then we probably would have grudgingly paid it but £160 is obscene greed.

saker75

I live outside London and would rarely drive in. I also didn't know about ULEZ until a neighbour was caught by it. I have seen signs but thought they related to lorries - the signs coming in on the motorway are confusing (M40/A40) because there seem to be different restrictions for lorries.

So it'll cost an extra £12 or so for me to drive in. Yet even with parking charges that's still cheaper than the train for myself and family.

sevenhills

saker75 wrote: »

I live outside London and would rarely drive in. I also didn't know about ULEZ until a neighbour was caught by it.

It was in the news yesturday about Birmingham banning cars, they are already bringing in a clean-air-zone.
Anyone that is not aware of what is going on should think about whether they know enough about this country to vote!

giraffe69

I can understand how the OP might miss signs on a wet and windy evening and maybe is a bit unlucky but no idea why one should expect to be let off as it is a first offence unless that should happen to all. Its an £80 lesson and I would prefer not to have to pay this but frankly no real alternative to coughing up.
The post above about possibilities of a ban in Birmingham is a sign that all this will become more common in a wider area in the next decade including, of course, the ULEZ zone expanding in London next year