Congestion Charging

Cash-strapped Lambeth fails to collect £750,000 C-charge debt

Nov 11 2003
Exclusive By Oscar Mortali

South London Press

TRANSPORT for London (TfL) is waiting on invoices totalling more than £750,000 from cash-strapped Lambeth council.

The authority - which is millions in debt - has still not got around to billing TfL for works carried out in preparation for the congestion charge. Lambeth installed 20mph zones, new controlled parking zones, signs and traffic calming measures in time for the introduction of the charge in February.

It is TfL's duty to pay for the work - but eight months on, no invoice has arrived at City Hall. News of the missing invoices emerged at a Kennington Association meeting last month. Responding to calls for more funding for Lambeth, TfL representative Jeremy Evans told the meeting: "We have put a lot of money Lambeth's way at their request for improvements in traffic calming.

"In fact we are still awaiting an invoice for £750,000 worth of work which, if they get to us, we will pay for."

A TfL spokeswoman confirmed it had still not received an invoice totalling £263,000 for work carried out in the last financial year by March.

Also, no invoice has been received for "rolling work" carried out by September which totals £494,000.

The spokeswoman said Lambeth had until March next year to invoice TfL for the £494,000 and added: "Although the £263,000 was for the last financial year, we will still pay for it as this is money we have set aside for the work."

A Lambeth council spokesman said: "The council has been waiting for its contractor to submit invoices for works carried out.

"The result is that we have been unable to start the process of reclaiming money from Transport for London until now.

"There remains works to be implemented in the financial year 2003/04 which TfL is fully aware of. Once implemented and a contractor invoice has been received, the council will begin the reclaiming process.

"We can assure residents that the council is fully aware of the situation and that all the money will be reclaimed as appropriate."

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