Incorrect PCN data oxford controlled zone

[Purosangue]

Had the misfortune of driving through Oxford last month and inevitably through the congestion zone .

On returning home , a few hours later the same day applied on line and paid the £2.00 fee , received a receipt of payment via email .

all good until this morning a PCN drops through the post £70, with a photo of our car going through the controlled zone , time and date match the date we were there , fortunately found the receipt of payment and filled in the online appeal form.

raises several questions . about to go to Australia for 8 weeks. Normally I would have missed the letter

how many PCN are issued in error ?. The wife was stressed bout it .
guessing there is no recourse for lost time searching through emails etc. inconvenience stress etc.
just curious as clearly in this case we can prove its been paid

[vikingaero]

This is what annoys me about PCNs and having to waste time to appeal them. I received a couple where the attendant hadn't bothered to check his handheld device and issued a PCN anyway. This was a ticketless car park, so now I always press the button for a paper receipt and keep it in the car for a few months.

I'm of the opinion that both controlled zones, crossings, car parks (both private and public) should pay you whatever they wanted to charge you if they get it wrong.

[Purosangue]

vikingaero said:

This is what annoys me about PCNs and having to waste time to appeal them. I received a couple where the attendant hadn't bothered to check his handheld device and issued a PCN anyway. This was a ticketless car park, so now I always press the button for a paper receipt and keep it in the car for a few months.

I'm of the opinion that both controlled zones, crossings, car parks (both private and public) should pay you whatever they wanted to charge you if they get it wrong.

that's a good point charge them for the full £70

then they waive the £2.00 actual fee

[DavePanda]

Isn't the charge £5? If you paid £2 that'll be why you got a PCN

[AlexRS2782]

DavePanda said:

Isn't the charge £5? If you paid £2 that'll be why you got a PCN

Yeah it's £5. Hopefully the £2 thing is just a typo by OP / they wrongly remembered what the cost was when typing this post, but if they did really only pay £2, then no surprise a PCN was issued.

First result in Google, including links to pay, etc.

https://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/transport-and-trave...

Oxfordshire Council Site Above said:

The daily congestion charge - A daily charge is £5.

You only pay once a day. You can drive through multiple charge locations per day or any single charge location multiple times per day.

[Purosangue]

here's the strange thing went onto the oxford web page when i arrived home

inputted my registration number

the fee stated was £2.00

I paid and this is the receipt




Ive filled out form and sent back to them

will wait and see , at no point did it ask for £5 it was completely automated

[LivLL]

£2 for ultra low emission car - under 75g/km CO2 for the zero emission zone.

If you went into the congestion charge zone that's different and £5.

Edited by LivLL on Thursday 14th May 00:25

[Purosangue]

LivLL said:

£2 for ultra low emission car - under 75g/km CO2 for the zero emission zone.

If you went into the congestion charge zone that's different and £5.

Edited by LivLL on Thursday 14th May 00:25

I typed in my reg and it did the rest , its a bloody silly system drive through Bristol etc low emission vehicles are exempt ?

no idea i went on the oxford website filled in the details paid what it said

ive sent of the details to oxford council , see what they come up with

[fooman]

Oxford congestion and zero emission zones are two separate systems with separate payments. Tis all explained here;

https://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/transport-and-trave...

Sucks they are not joined up but that's councils for you, it's not like they can loose business because they are inefficient.

[Purosangue]

fooman said:

Oxford congestion and zero emission zones are two separate systems with separate payments. Tis all explained here;

https://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/transport-and-trave...

Sucks they are not joined up but that's councils for you, it's not like they can loose business because they are inefficient.

thanks that's utter ste you input your reg never been to Oxford before , the Dartford tunnel if you forget you call them helpfull phone number and just pay the fee

[LivLL]

Its almost like its intentional to squeeze as much out of visitors as possible, you know, not to reduce emissions.

[The0perator]

LivLL said:

Its almost like its intentional to squeeze as much out of visitors as possible, you know, not to reduce emissions.

I always find it amazing as well.. if I pay them the pollution magically a disappears

[Doesitdrive]

LivLL said:

Its almost like its intentional to squeeze as much out of visitors as possible, you know, not to reduce emissions.

If it was about emissions vehicles would be banned and a fine issued for ignoring the ban.

Of course it's about revenue, anyone legal is an easy target, got to pay for all those that are not somehow.

[snuffy]

You can't drive that highly polluting vehicle here.

Here's a tenner.

In which case, its fine, carry on.

[snuffy]

Purosangue said:

fooman said:

Oxford congestion and zero emission zones are two separate systems with separate payments. Tis all explained here;

https://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/transport-and-trave...

Sucks they are not joined up but that's councils for you, it's not like they can loose business because they are inefficient.

thanks that's utter ste you input your reg never been to Oxford before , the Dartford tunnel if you forget you call them helpfull phone number and just pay the fee

I've just tried putting my number in, and if I want to pay for today or yesterday.

If you say "yesterday" if just asks you for the money. So clearly it's not checking anything. Which is a 's trick.

What it should do is that you put your number in, and it checks which fee you owe. And if you don't owe a fee, it should then ask you if you are wishing to pay in advance?

But that would be far too simple a process.

[vikingaero]

snuffy said:

Purosangue said:

fooman said:

Oxford congestion and zero emission zones are two separate systems with separate payments. Tis all explained here;

https://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/transport-and-trave...

Sucks they are not joined up but that's councils for you, it's not like they can loose business because they are inefficient.

thanks that's utter ste you input your reg never been to Oxford before , the Dartford tunnel if you forget you call them helpfull phone number and just pay the fee

I've just tried putting my number in, and if I want to pay for today or yesterday.

If you say "yesterday" if just asks you for the money. So clearly it's not checking anything. Which is a 's trick.

What it should do is that you put your number in, and it checks which fee you owe. And if you don't owe a fee, it should then ask you if you are wishing to pay in advance?

But that would be far too simple a process.

This is the same problem with the London Congestion Charge and ULEZ zones. You could stray into the area by mistake, or the Police could forcibly divert you because of an incident, but as everyone says, they don't allow you to check and pay. They want you to pay for a possibly non-existent charge or get a PCN. If they want to behave like aholes then we should treat them and the whole scheme as aholes.

[Doesitdrive]

vikingaero said:

This is the same problem with the London Congestion Charge and ULEZ zones. You could stray into the area by mistake, or the Police could forcibly divert you because of an incident, but as everyone says, they don't allow you to check and pay. They want you to pay for a possibly non-existent charge or get a PCN. If they want to behave like aholes then we should treat them and the whole scheme as aholes.

There has been a very recent change with the Dartford crossing.

I used it a couple of weeks ago and it actually did tell me what I need to pay for, it didn't previously.

London is just one big TFL scam.

[snuffy]

vikingaero said:

This is the same problem with the London Congestion Charge and ULEZ zones. You could stray into the area by mistake, or the Police could forcibly divert you because of an incident, but as everyone says, they don't allow you to check and pay. They want you to pay for a possibly non-existent charge or get a PCN. If they want to behave like aholes then we should treat them and the whole scheme as aholes.

The Mersey crossing is actually quite good. You have until midnight the following day to pay, or you can pay in advance. If you pay in advance, you can then check if your advanced payment has been used.

You can load crossing payments up, and cross X times, then check and it will say "your have Y crossings remaining".

Their customer service is also very good. For example, last year I bought a new car, and then transferred my plate to it. A few days later, I wanted to pay in advance, so I put my plate in and it came up with my old car's details, with no why to change the car. So I paid, but then emailed and asked if that would cause an issue, since the reg did not match the car? They answered in a day or so, and said it was fine as it only looks at the reg, so the fact they don't match does not matter. Then they said they had manually updated their system for my new car's details. And when I checked by doing a dummy advance crossing payment, they had indeed updated it.

I was quite impressed.

[KG63]

There has been a lot of discussion locally about the wording and location of the congestion charge signage as you approach Oxford. It appears many people think they have entered the CCZ when I fact the signage is just warning that a CCZ operates in the city.

If you log on to the council website and enter your reg to check if you strayed in to the CCZ it happily asks you for £5 regardless. They have raised a lot of money through mistaken payments.

You only trigger the CCZ charge if you pass one of the 6 camera’s, not surprisingly you can’t get to the main shopping centre car park in Oxford at the Westgate centre without passing a camera🙄

[Sheepshanks]

snuffy said:

The Mersey crossing is actually quite good. You have until midnight the following day to pay, or you can pay in advance. If you pay in advance, you can then check if your advanced payment has been used.

You can load crossing payments up, and cross X times, then check and it will say "your have Y crossings remaining".

Their customer service is also very good. For example, last year I bought a new car, and then transferred my plate to it. A few days later, I wanted to pay in advance, so I put my plate in and it came up with my old car's details, with no why to change the car. So I paid, but then emailed and asked if that would cause an issue, since the reg did not match the car? They answered in a day or so, and said it was fine as it only looks at the reg, so the fact they don't match does not matter. Then they said they had manually updated their system for my new car's details. And when I checked by doing a dummy advance crossing payment, they had indeed updated it.

I was quite impressed.

I was not impressed by them sending one of my kids (who does very occasionally use the bridge) a PCN when the picture with it clearly showed a different reg no,

I was also not impressed by their response which said "on this occasion we will waive the charge" like they were doing her a favour. If they make a mistake they should pay an amount in compensation that is the same as the penalty charge.