The Mayor of London’s money-making Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez) has gone down like a lead balloon with many motorists since it was expanded in late August last year.
There have been ‘honk if you hate Ulez’ demonstrations in London while more than 1,000 Ulez cameras have either been damaged or stolen. Yet Sadiq Khan has not been for turning.
The scheme, designed to limit harmful pollution (really?), means that anyone with a non-compliant vehicle must pay a daily £12.50 fee to drive within London. Failure to pay the charge promptly can result in a fine of up to £180. Some 60,000 vehicle owners – of petrol cars registered before 2006 and diesel cars registered before 2015 – are paying the daily charge.
Louise Matz, an accountant from Pinner in North-West London, has paid more than £300 in Ulez charges since the scheme was launched. To ensure she never got fined, she set up an ‘auto-pay’ account with Transport for London (TfL).
In January, she decided enough was enough and sold her Ulez non-compliant Kia for a compliant Nissan Micra. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency duly notified her that she was no longer the owner of the Kia. Unsure as to whether she had any outstanding Ulez charges, she kept open her account so they could be paid from her bank account.
Sign of the times: There have been ‘honk if you hate Ulez’ demonstrations in London while more than 1,000 Ulez cameras have either been damaged or stolen
Last Tuesday, Louise received her monthly Ulez statement for February and was shocked to discover that she had incurred a £12.50 charge on February 5 – ten days after disposing of her Kia.
The supporting camera picture showed her car on a transporter lorry in Enfield, North London – presumably on its way to be auctioned. Having successfully challenged a previous charge because a Ulez camera confused the ‘C’ on someone’s else’s number plate with the ‘G’ on hers, she assumed she would have no problem overturning the £12.50 bill.
But, bizarrely, TfL said she was still liable for the fine. This is because she had not removed the Kia from her auto-pay account at the time it was caught on camera.
In its letter to Louise, TfL said: ‘We’re unable to make an adjustment/give you a refund as we have reviewed the vehicle image and believe that the charge has been raised correctly.’
What utter tosh. We already know that the Ulez scheme is unfair, widely disliked and a tax on many hard-working people.
What Louise’s experience highlights is that the scheme is operated by people whose sole duty is to raise as much revenue as possible for TfL. Common sense just doesn’t get a look in. If you have done the same as Louise and jettisoned your non-compliant Ulez car in favour of one that gets Mr Khan’s seal of approval, don’t forget to remove your old motor from TfL’s auto-pay service.
I have taken up Louise’s case with TfL and will report back when I get a response. Hopefully, TfL will see the madness of its ways and refund Louise the money it had no right to take from her.
The brilliant buildings you could bank on…
A big thank you to all those lovely readers who have taken the trouble over the past few days to nominate their most eye-catching bank branch – still open, closed (for good) or repurposed.
This follows a trip earlier this month to Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, where I stumbled upon a magnificent HSBC branch whose roots go back to 1810 when it was the home of Stratford Old Bank. An imposing Victorian gothic building which to this day still takes the breath away.
Some of the pictures you sent in of local branches were jaw-dropping, confirming just how important they once were to the communities they served. Many were – and remain – grandiose buildings, dominating the streets.
Although space prevents me from showing all these splendid examples of architectural banking excellence, three caught my eye. The first is Royal Bank of Scotland’s flagship branch in St Andrew Square, Edinburgh – put forward by 49-year-old actuary Kirsten Watt who lives in Perth.
Kirsten used to work for the insurance arm of RBS, in a building close to the branch. ‘I loved going in there at lunchtime,’ she recalls, ‘and marvelling at the size of the banking hall, its dome ceiling and ornamental design. I never got bored of it.’
High life: (From top left down) RBS HQ in Edinburgh, Rainham’s The Greedy Banker, NatWest in Burslem, and right, Arnold Bennett
While Kirsten lost her job under the madcap reign of RBS boss Fred ‘The Shred’ Goodwin, she soon found employment at a rival financial services company. She adds: ‘A few Christmases ago, I went back to the branch with one of my two daughters and was blown away again. It’s a fantastic building, inside and out.’
The former home of merchant Sir Lawrence Dundas, the building was acquired by RBS just under 200 years ago. Its beauty means it is an integral part of walking tours around the new town. Whether it remains integral to RBS’s ever-dwindling branch network, only time will tell.
The second is the imposing NatWest branch in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, a listed building which has been empty since 2017.
Resident Carol Gorton says the gothic-style branch, that started life as the District Bank in 1870, often featured in the novels of local writer Arnold Bennett who wrote prolifically between the 1890s and 1930s. Carol, secretary of the 200-member strong Arnold Bennett Society, says Burslem (Bursley in Bennett’s novels) has now lost all its major banks. ‘It is suffering on many levels,’ says Carol who is busy organising the society’s annual Arnold Bennett Day in June. ‘Empty shops dominate. The NatWest building and the old Lloyds branch point to a past when the area was thriving.’
Finally, retired charity worker Jill Sidders, who lives just outside Sittingbourne in Kent, tells me that the old Barclays bank in nearby Rainham is now a pub called The Greedy Banker. ‘The bank didn’t have any architectural merit,’ she admits, ‘but the name change was meritorious. I’ve never been inside the pub, but I do have a quiet chuckle to myself whenever I walk past it.’
Thanks for all your pictures and emails.
‘Debt Awareness Week’ aims to help those with money worries
No one likes to talk about personal debt. Most people ignore it, hoping it will miraculously go away. Of course, it doesn’t. Sadly, problems with paying down debt are on the rise as many households’ finances are being stretched to breaking point.
Credit card debt – and interest rates – continue to rise while mortgage arrears are now at a seven-year high.
It is therefore timely that charity StepChange (stepchange.org) will tomorrow launch its tenth ‘Debt Awareness Week’.
The overriding message that the charity wants to drill home is that those struggling with debt should not bury their head in the sand. They should seek advice.
If you are in such a position, PLEASE heed its important message.
Some links in this article may be affiliate links. If you click on them we may earn a small commission. That helps us fund This Is Money, and keep it free to use. We do not write articles to promote products. We do not allow any commercial relationship to affect our editorial independence.
https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/comment/article-13204481/JEFF-PRESTRIDGE-Ulez-fine-driver-car-lorry.html
