TfL - as slippery as sin

A congestion charge PCN had a long (and unhappy) life. The issue date of 2 December 2023 was a Saturday and that is enough to invalidate it, a Congestion Charge PCN must be posted on the date of issue as otherwise motorists lose some of their statutory time to respond and it is a straightforward breach of the law. Here is the PCN history in backwards date order:

The PCN went wrong the month after Mr Mustard had made the fornal representations which were to the effect that the motorist had been short changed as to time to respond. TfL decided that what he had written didn't amount to a representation (they aren't the first enforcement authority to try this silliness but none so far has prevailed in their attempt)

Mr Mustard knows the proper procedure to follow inside out and so he fired a warning shot across the bows of TfL clearly pointing out why they were wrong:

That email to a named officer (employee), sent on 11 January, met with a response on 14 February in which TfL said they would send a full response and the penalty would remain on hold.

(The named officer is known to a friend of Mr Mustard's who describes him as usually looking like he is chewing a wasp).

Not on hold for long: on 16 February, a charge certificate was issued which increased the penalty to £270. Ouch.

The issue of a charge certificate made it look to the motorist as if Mr Mustard didn't know what he was doing. He usually does (if he drops a clanger he makes good financially & does not have to put his hand in his pocket very much at all).

On 20 February Mr Mustard emailed the group inbox of TfL (cccorrespondence@tfl.gov.uk) pointing out the error of sending a charge certificate at a time when the file was on hold due to a representation and suggesting that out of fairness TfL would now want to cancel the PCN.

That email didn't do any good either. The penalty was registered by TfL as a debt at the Traffic Enforcement Centre, part of the Northampton County Court (but mostly just a register of supposedly overdue PCNs).

The motorist had to visit a Solicitor and swear a Statutory Declaration that he had made in time representations, which was never in doubt as they were on TfL's files.

It took less than a week for the TEC to cancel the Charge Certificate, the PCN still staying alive in such a situation.

Another fortnight passed and TfL finally cancelled the PCN. If they sent an apology it didn't reach Mr Mustard, via his client, but the case history doesn't show one. Good manners are rather missing in the world of PCNs, they shouldn't be.

The end.