Amnesty for all Haringey car drivers at 5pm on 11th June 10/02/04

Steve Norris, Conservative Mayoral candidate, today announced that he will introduce an amnesty for all outstanding congestion charge fines as soon as he takes office after the Mayoral election.

The amnesty will come into force as soon as the election result is announced, from 5pm on Friday 11th June, and will apply to all disputed or unpaid penalty charge notices.

Announcing the decision, Steve Norris said that he had decided to introduce the amnesty because of “the huge number of penalty charge notices sent in error and the large backlog of unpaid fines”.

The decision to introduce an amnesty, made one week before the anniversary of the introduction of congestion charging, comes shortly after Steve Norris’ recent announcement that he intends to sack the scheme contractor Capita for “contractual failures” describing the idea that the company would be entitled to receive large compensation as “ridiculous”.

Steve said: “I have always said that I will scrap the congestion charge scheme as soon as I am elected, so it would be pointless wasting yet more money pursuing motorists who are disputing their fines. I am extremely concerned that there are serious problems with how the scheme is operating with tens of thousands of people being fined incorrectly. Congestion charging is currently haemorrhaging money and ruining business. I intend to start with a clean sheet from day one. “

According to the latest Transport for London figures, there is a current backlog of 55,000 outstanding fines. From 10th February until 11th June, the number of Penalty Charge Notices expected to be issued is 640,000 – half of which will be paid, leaving 160,000 being disputed and 160,000 simply unpaid.

The BBC Watchdog programme recently uncovered a woeful list of errors by the Capita collection department, listing complaints over wrongfully issued penalty notices including one from a man from Yorkshire who has never driven a car in London but has received three penalty charges and a woman from Northampton who has never driven to the capital but has currently received 22 congestion charge fines.

Commenting on Steve's announcement, Justin Hinchcliffe, a spokesman for Tottenham Conservatives, said: "This is good news for Haringey drivers. Congestion charging punishes those least able to pay. Many local people use their cars to get to and from work as public transport is is a mess. And some local people who do not cross the zone are still punished through Capita's incompetence."

ENDS.