Islington Tribune - News: Congestion charge fine that soared from £40 to £500

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Islington Tribune - by PETER GRUNER
Published: 11 January 2008

William Keegan

Congestion charge fine that soared from £40 to £500

Economics editor attacks ‘maladministration’

ONE of Britain’s best- known economics journalists, William Keegan, has launched a campaign against alleged “maladministration” by Transport for London over a £500 fine for non-payment of the congestion charge.
Mr Keegan, who lives in Barnsbury and writes a weekly column for the Observer newspaper, is planning to appeal against the fine, which rose from an initial £40 to £491.
He woke up to find his Golf car had been clamped before 7.30am last month, although it was in his resident’s parking bay in Lofting Road. To get it released he was ordered to pay a fine of £491 to private security firm Equita.
He claims a final letter from the firm giving him the chance to pay half the original fine arrived through his letter box hours after his car had been clamped.
The letter was dated December 6, and arrived at his home more than a week later, on December 13. Tfl and Equita maintain they sent letters warning of the impending clamping, but Mr Keegan denies receiving them.
The letters do not appear to have been sent by recorded delivery.
Mr Keegan said: “My wife and I drive regularly into the congestion zone and we pay the charge normally but occasionally we forget.
“In this case, both my wife and I thought the other had paid the fine, but neither had.
“But this fine was totally disproportionate to the error. It is the sort of thing that really antagonises people.
“We can’t understand how we got from a £40 fine to almost £500. The security people claim they attempted to contact us before we were clamped, but my wife and I have no knowledge of it.
“Tfl said it sent a charge certificate in August and a debt registration certificate in September but we didn’t receive them. How do we know they were sent if they were not sent recorded delivery?
“I find everywhere I go people are complaining about parking fines like this. It is very unfair and they hit people who often can least afford to pay up.”
Last year Mr Keegan lost an appeal against a £100 parking fine. He claimed a no-parking sign near his home on an Arsenal match day was “small and obscured”.

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