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Congestion Charging

from Cathy (cathyvpreece@aol.com)

Times

February 25, 2003

Kengestion is extended (right back to 1965)

By Shirley English and Ben Webster, Transport Correspondent

IT CAME as something of a shock to Tony Kielb when the £40 fine for dodging the congestion charge popped through his letterbox.

It wasn’t that he hadn’t been to London; he had. The problem was that his last visit to the capital had been 38 years ago — and he had been riding an exempt motorbike to boot.

Luckily for Mr Kielb, 57, he had spent last Tuesday in the company of his wife Betsy, 54. Otherwise, he might have had some explaining to do. There in black and white was the allegation from Transport for London that his silver Ford Focus Ghia, registration Y52 USL, had been recorded crossing the charging boundary between Kennington Lane and Vauxhall at 11.29am.

Mr Kielb, of Leslie, Fife, says that he was actually 400 miles away, shopping with his wife in the small Fife town of Glenrothes. His car was parked in the local car park. He has not been in London since 1965.

“I didn’t think the congestion boundaries stretched this far north,” he said yesterday. Mrs Kielb, 54, added: “I’ve never been to London in my life and the last time Tony was there was in 1965 when he was visiting his cousin in the Royal Marines.”

The couple have appealed, sending in receipts to prove they were shopping in Glenrothes at the time they were “spotted” in London.

A spokesman for Transport for London admitted there had been some “teething problems” with the new system, and blamed the mistakes on human error rather than technical hitches.

“If they have been wrongly charged we can only apologise and they will go through our independent appeals procedure,” he said. “We are dealing with hundreds of thousands of people every day and any mistakes are a tiny percentage.”

Yesterday, the roads around the charge zone saw the first heavy traffic since the toll began a week ago. The reopening of the majority of schools after the half-term holiday saw traffic across the capital rise by up to a fifth. Streets inside the zone remained much clearer than normal, with 20 per cent less traffic.

Transport for London said: “An estimated 20 per cent reduction inside the zone is an encouraging sign, particularly as today is the first day back for many schools.”

An RAC spokeswoman said: “While slightly busier than last week, traffic is still flowing relatively easily in and around London.”

The Finchley Road, approaching the charging zone, was very busy during the morning peak as drivers appeared to find new rat runs. The Marylebone flyover was slow but traffic had not built up to usual levels. Vehicles on Vauxhall Bridge northbound were moving freely and there were “more than the usual number of cyclists noticed”, the RAC said.

The Earl’s Court Road became busy with traffic trying to loop around the edge of the zone. The usual hotspots of Park Lane, Victoria, the A4 from the Hogarth roundabout, Euston Road after the underpass and Westminster were all said to be running freely.

(posted 7703 days ago)

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