Damned extortion
Wed Dec 03 19:57:30 GMT 2003 Permalink
You know, what really galls me is that I am in favour of the London
congestion charge and am happy to pay it. Except when I don't
think I should.
Coming back from the airport this evening I passed through the congestion zone briefly sometime around when charging finishes at 6:30. It's hard to tell because I tend to spend more time keeping an eye on the assholes trying to kill me than watching the clock.
So when I got home I phoned up and asked the congestion charging people if they could tell me if I had been in the zone during the charging period. "No we can't tell you that." They said and then went on to say "We recommend that you pay the charge if you think you were in the zone." Well obviously there are civil liberty implications in my question so I wasn't too perturbed. So I asked "I assume that if you find I wasn't in the zone you'll refund my £5?" "We don't give refunds."
So they can tell if I was in the zone and didn't pay, but can't tell if I paid but didn't have to. They'll take my money now or fine me (£80 and upwards) if I make a mistake.
This feels a lot like like extortion to me.
Coming back from the airport this evening I passed through the congestion zone briefly sometime around when charging finishes at 6:30. It's hard to tell because I tend to spend more time keeping an eye on the assholes trying to kill me than watching the clock.
So when I got home I phoned up and asked the congestion charging people if they could tell me if I had been in the zone during the charging period. "No we can't tell you that." They said and then went on to say "We recommend that you pay the charge if you think you were in the zone." Well obviously there are civil liberty implications in my question so I wasn't too perturbed. So I asked "I assume that if you find I wasn't in the zone you'll refund my £5?" "We don't give refunds."
So they can tell if I was in the zone and didn't pay, but can't tell if I paid but didn't have to. They'll take my money now or fine me (£80 and upwards) if I make a mistake.
This feels a lot like like extortion to me.