Hi
Has anyone else had a similar experience?
A few months back we were WRONGLY sent a standard CC PENALTY NOTICE. This wrongly stated that the car was in a certain place at a certain time.
You can only appeal in writing - our daughter did this (after over coming the initial anger/frustration an worry that her car may be cloned) within the specified time scales. She gave minimum but appropriate details and could back them up by a letter from her work place and others that are insured to drive that car.
To their credit they responded within seven working days I think stating they accepted her appeal against the CC Penalty notice.
HOWEVER, THERE WAS NO EXPLANATION WHY IT WAS ISSUED AND NO APOLOGY.
Now they are thinking of extending the zone. I do not really mind as long as they get it right.
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I do mind.
At the moment I think they are being sympathetic to appeals, as they know a certain proportion of penalties are likely to be issued in error. But this may change when they decide they need to be making more money. I'm sure for some people it may be impossible to prove your car was not in the CC zone at the time in question, so what come-back will we have against such errors?
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I agree, they're probably just issuing them to anyone who appeals, bad publicity is the thorn in their side at the moment, but once apathetic people just accept it as though it was always there, and bit by bit the cameras are moves outwards to increase the zone, they'kk not be so sympathetic. Especially as several other cities are likely to setup their own within a few years....before you know it, it will be unusal NOT to be in a CC zone!
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Is Stephen Norris still commited to abolishing the CC if elected?
If so I will move to London just to vote for him.
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"I agree, they're probably just issuing them to anyone who appeals". Perhaps I don't understand the CC! They say you are there unpaid and issue a ticket and you appeal against it ie there has to be something to appeal about. What is it that "They" are issuing to people who appeal?
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Issuing waivers or pardons or whatever they call them.
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ST. I see what you are saying! There is an Urban Myth that a lady in Cornwall, who has never taken her car East of Taunton got over 100 CC penalty notices and had to appeal on them one by one rather then "en Block"! 100 individual letters etc! I think we would be staggered if we knew how many people were going in and out of the zone without paying and getting away with it. It is already admitted that the revenue is way down and the newt lover has had to give Capita bung to make up for the profits that they aren't making on the contract.
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Last Wednesday I was driving from Streatham to Isle Of Dogs, carefully choosing my route around Congestion Charge as usual. On New Kent Road I noticed car pulling to one side, felt just like a flat tyre. Without much thinking I indicated turn and stopped partialy on the pavement about one metre inside Harper Road and then proceeded to change the wheel (front right tyre was indeed punctured). Little I knew I was already one metre inside Red Ken Zone and after being inevitably spotted by cameras operated by Livingstone Mercenaries on Saturday morning I received a letter with fine. £40 if I pay now, £80 if I hesitate, £120 if I dare to challenge.
Lesson to be learned - next time it happens to any of you just stop on the main road, change the wheel blocking the entire traffic for 20 minutes.
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Without much thinking I indicated turn andstopped partialy on the pavement about one metre inside Harper Road. Lesson to be learned - next time it happens to any of you just stop on the main road, change the wheel blocking the entire traffic for 20 minutes.
Lesson to be learned is to drive on another 200 meters and pull into the BP petrol station!!
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It is an interesting reaction from the newt lover. The CC is not working, and when I say not working I mean lining his pockets with lots of our loot which lets be honest is all he's interested in, so whats the solution? Extend the scheme thats not working! Fantastic.
Incidentally the administration for the CC is in the Hess building near Victoria, one of the nicest office blocks I have ever been in. Nice to know they're comfortable.
Notice another one of his bendy buses went up in flames the other day...
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Yup
thats the third. So what do they do? fix the problem? NO install a fire protection.
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RF,
Do you (or anyone else) know why they keep catching fire? Bendy buses are not new technology after all, remember seeming such things in Germany 20 years ago.
Wrong type of air perhaps?
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Some more info:
Call for 'bendy buses' to be withdrawn By Local London Reporter
Safety checks are to be carried out twice a day on the 130 new 'bendy buses' in use across London, after the third fire on one of the articulated vehicles since December.
The driver and passengers aboard a 436 route bus were able to scramble off, before it caught fire as it travelled north along Park Lane on Saturday.
London Fire Brigade was called to deal with the blaze, which gutted the bus.
Transport officials have ordered new safety checks, with drivers examining their vehicles before they begin a service, followed by engineering checks on each bus every night.
"It's the third such incident we have had and at the moment we are in talks with Mercedes and Evo Bus," said a Transport for London spokesperson.
Evo Bus, part of the Mercedes group, manufactures the 18-metre long buses, which can carry 140 people - twice the number carried by a Routemaster.
TfL says it will still go ahead with introducing another 29 of the buses next month, serving the 149 route.
One of the buses caught fire on the Edgware Rd in December, and there was another fire on board a bus in Camberwell last month.
The London Assembly Conservatives have called for the buses to be withdrawn, saying transport officials would have been far stricter if three fires had occurred on London Underground in the same time period.
Livingstone the London mayor should admit that his buses are ticking time bombs and pull them all off the road immediately, said Roger Evans, Conservative transport spokesperson on the Assembly.
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What is the point of the bandy buses? They take up twice the room of the ordinary empty double decker bus.
Did newt features put these bendies on the road just to wind up car drivers?
It takes twice as long to overtake these bendy newt buses.
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Not only do they take up twice the room, but they are too long to pull into the bus laybys.
Solution: fill in the bus laybys so the buses (ALL buses, not just the bendy ones) stop in the middle of the road and nobody can go past whilst the pasengers load/unload.
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OTOH, Brian, low bridges are no threat to people upstairs if the driver forgets where he is!
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>> RF,Do you (or anyone else) know why they keep catching fire? Bendy buses are not new technology after all, remember seeming such things in Germany 20 years ago. Wrong type of air perhaps?
Don't think anybody knows why yet. Oddly, all three fires on buses in service have been on the same route. The fourth occurred during delivery. Only accident I've seen involved a Pug 405 who tried to beat one thru' a pinch point and got his wing mirror caught in the bendy bit. Very funny observed from the roadside. Stuffed Kingsway for twenty minutes.
Their perceived advantage is disabled access and ease of loading through three sets of doors. Takes about a fortnight to pass one on the folding bike though.
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At the roundabout in Sudbury where the 18 route ends, I swear there can be passengers getting on at one end while the other end is still blocking the roundabout...
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Bendy-buses withdrawn after fires
At least three bendy buses have caught fire in the last three months
All bendy-buses in London have been taken out of service following three separate fires on the vehicles.
The 130-strong fleet will not be in operation for a week to allow "modification" work.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/3563279...m
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Without much thinking I indicated turn and >> stopped partialy on the pavement about one metre inside Harper Road. >> >> Lesson to be learned - next time it happens to any >> of you just stop on the main road, change the wheel >> blocking the entire traffic for 20 minutes. >> Lesson to be learned is to drive on another 200 meters and pull into the BP petrol station!!
Your response, a wee harsh? Surely, these were exceptional circumstances and some people may not be aware that they can drive on a flat for several miles or that there is a safe place to park.
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I don't understand why the BP station isn't inside the zone. I did fill up there once (desperate) and checked with them that I hadn't incurred the £5 fine.
Be a bit harsh for a petrol station on the ringroad to be in the zone, but still...
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All 150 bendy buses off the road indefinitely pending safety review.
Another triumph for the newt lover!
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I understand trom the Standard that they're all off the road for a week for safety alterations.
As a bus user, bendy buses are marvellous. Much quicker to get on and off. (And in the event of a fire, much easier to get off than a double decker - can you imagine the panic on the stairs?)
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Interesting comment Mapmaker as the article also carried a report that a Routemaster had caught fire on Wednesday.
I would expect the conversations between tfl and evobus are rather interesting the cause is quoted as "a hose in the bus engines" !!
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