Ulez fine for driver whose car was on back of a lorry!
THE Mayor of London’s money-making Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez) has gone down like a lead balloon with many motorists since it was expanded in late August last year.
There have been ‘honk if you hate Ulez’ demonstrations in London while more than 1,000 Ulez cameras have either been damaged or stolen. Yet Sadiq Khan has not been for turning.
The scheme, designed to limit harmful pollution (really?), means that anyone with a non-compliant vehicle must pay a daily £12.50 fee to drive within London. Failure to pay the charge promptly can result in a fine of up to £180. Some 60,000 vehicle owners – of petrol cars registered before 2006 and diesel cars registered before 2015 – are paying the daily charge.
Louise Matz, an accountant from Pinner in North-West London, has paid more than £300 in Ulez charges since the scheme was launched. To ensure she never got fined, she set up an ‘auto-pay’ account with Transport for London (TfL).
In January, she decided enough was enough and sold her Ulez noncompliant Kia for a compliant Nissan Micra. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency duly notified her that she was no longer the owner of the Kia. Unsure as to whether she had any outstanding Ulez charges, she kept open her account so they could be paid from her bank account.
Last Tuesday, Louise received her monthly Ulez statement for February and was shocked to discover that she had incurred a £12.50 charge on February 5 – ten days after disposing of her Kia.
The supporting camera picture showed her car on a transporter lorry in Enfield, North London – presumably on its way to be auctioned. Having successfully challenged a previous charge because a Ulez camera confused the ‘C’ on someone’s else’s number plate with the ‘G’ on hers, she assumed she would have no problem overturning the £12.50 bill.
But, bizarrely, TfL said she was still liable for the fine. This is because she had not removed the Kia from her auto-pay account at the time it was caught on camera.
In its letter to Louise, TfL said: ‘We’re unable to make an adjustment/give you a refund as we have reviewed the vehicle image and believe that the charge has been raised correctly.’
What utter tosh. We already know that the Ulez scheme is unfair, widely disliked and a tax on many hard-working people.
What Louise’s experience highlights is that the scheme is operated by people whose sole duty is to raise as much revenue as possible for TfL. Common sense just doesn’t get a look in. If you have done the same as Louise and jettisoned your non-compliant Ulez car in favour of one that gets Mr Khan’s seal of approval, don’t forget to remove your old motor from TfL’s auto-pay service.
I have taken up Louise’s case with TfL and will report back when I get a response. Hopefully, TfL will see the madness of its ways and refund Louise the money it had no right to take from her.