Dartford Crossing PCN Confused about fine

greensalad

I received a PCN for not paying the dart charge, twice (both ways). Completely slipped my mind, totally my fault. 

But I'm really confused about the level of the fine.

As it's within 14 days of the PCN being issued I went on to pay £70 (£35 twice). I followed the instructions on the letter exactly.

1. Visited www.gov.uk/dart-charge
2. Clicked "Start Now"
3. Clicked "Pay or Challenge PCN"

I put in the PCN number from one of the letters and it brought up both PCNs, but the value was only £2.50. So I carried on and paid £5, which is the actual crossing fee. 

I'm confused because the whole process seems to suggest I need to pay the PCN + the dart charge, but the steps shown on the gov website only give me a value for the dart charges, not the PCNs. I got a confirmation which states I have paid the penalty charge and the crossing fee:



I should probably contact them and ask to pay £70 but, you know... if I've paid and the site won't allow me to pay more could I not just leave it? What do I do?

Half_way

Get in touch, do not offer to pay the £70 and ask them to confirm that there are no further outstanding charges.
You can tell them that you have been issued a penalty, but their system says you only owe £5. of which you have paid, and this is the first time this has happened

Umkomaas

As we major on private parking tickets here, PePiPoo will be your best bet for council tickets. Register there but please note that a Hotmail address won't work - try using a throwaway Gmail account instead if you do have trouble registering, and post a new thread; here's your link:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?act=SF&s=&f=30

Have a read through some of the other threads there before you post your own, to get the hang of what information they need from you in your opening post - but as a minimum you will need to post redacted photos/scans of all correspondence you've received from the council (both sides, if appropriate), as they need to see all the small print.

greensalad

Half_way said:

Get in touch, do not offer to pay the £70 and ask them to confirm that there are no further outstanding charges.
You can tell them that you have been issued a penalty, but their system says you only owe £5. of which you have paid, and this is the first time this has happened

That's a great strategy, thank you.

Half_way

Key words:
First time

Ask to confirm no outstanding charges

And you have paid the crossing fee of £2.50 each way all be it late.

Coupon-mad

How strange! Do let us know the outcome.

greensalad

Solved! Apparently for a first offence there is no PC to pay. However it seems that extends to two offences on the same day. I didn't see anywhere it stated this on the website but after I enquired about whether the payment had been accepted and the fine paid they pointed out to me that as it's a first offence no charge. Confusing but saved me £70!

fisherjim

All sounds very reasonable and how it should be

Coupon-mad

It is a terrific example for us to use in the PRIVATE parking Public Consultation, to demonstrate that:

£70 is a sufficient deterrent

and

Changing people's driving behaviour after a human error is not all about the money, nor 'enforcement'.

StocktonFlyer

Back in January I used the Dart Crossing twice in my newly bought second hand car that I had only had for two weeks at that point. When I logged on to pay the charge it said I owed nothing. Not wanting to get into trouble I rang them up to make sure. Turned out that my car had previously been registered to a disabled driver who was exempt and it was recorded as such on their register. The DVLA had obviously not yet amended the keeper information (they had the old V5C and I was still awaiting my new one). Anyway they said it was free and not to worry. Seemed a reasonable outfit.