This petition is to request 2 amendments to the Dartford-Thurrock Crossing Charging Scheme Order 2013 and The Road User Charging Schemes (Penalty Charges, Adjudication and Enforcement) (England) Regulations 2013 (as amended)
 
Context
Using the Dartford Crossing between 6am and 10pm everyday of the year, costs £2.50 for a regular car user are £2.50, or if you have an account £2.00.
 
When you use the crossing, ANPR systems gather your vehicle registration information. You then must make the appropriate payment, as the signs clearly state, by midnight the following day. If you are a regular user and you have an account or have setup an automated payment system, your journey will be automatically registered, and your account will be charged accordingly. If, however you are not a regular user, or do not have an automated payment system in place, it can be quite easy to forget to pay within the somewhat arbitrary, limited timeframe.
 
Amendment 1
This petition’s first request is for an amendment to the timeframe for payment from midnight the next day, to within 14 days, giving everyone plenty of time to make payment, whilst maintaining the basic revenue derived from crossing charges.
 
I use the Dartford crossing approximately every fortnight, because it is a shorter and therefore theoretically more environmental route to my destination. Diesel prices are now more than £1.75 a litre, and although I can get 52 mpg from of my car, every penny counts these days, and using the crossing is substantially more economical and sustainable than using the toll-free route the other wayround the M25.
 
It has been estimated that between 160,000 and 180,000 vehicles use the Dartford crossing every day (The RAC; https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/advice/legal/the-dartford-crossing-charge/ providing an annual estimated revenue of between £150-£200 million every year which goes to the local council (who set the charge) and the Ministry of Transport. “Highways England has revealed more than two million penalty charge notices demanding payments totalling £74m were issued to those travelling between Dartford and Thurrock” (Kent Online; https://www.kentonline.co.uk/dartford/news/dartford-crossing-fines-total-74m-220994/ Whether or not these charges are excessive, depends on your point of view, £74m of penalty charges certainly seems excessive.
 
For me, £2.50 is worth paying if it minimises my own vehicle emissions, by travelling less distance in my diesel car. And I am happy to support revenue derived from the basic charge, as a proportion of it is, I assume, necessary to maintain what appears to be a complex engineering system of crossings.
 
However, I do not agree that the time limitations for payment are appropriate or necessary, and the subsequent penalty charges could be viewed as a cynical and unnecessarily punitive method of extracting additional revenue from the public, many of whom simply cannot afford it, at a time when fuel, heating and food costs are all rising. 

Dartford crossing penalty charging is out of step with even the corporate culture of understanding, which aims to help people in financially difficult or dire situations. And there is no recourse to appeal to the administrators of these penalty charges, for example, based on affordability. I am also concerned that these timeframes and charges could lead to increased mental health problems associated with the anxieties arising from financial concerns which have been described at length recently in the media and in the mental health community; (https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/tips-for-everyday-living/money-and-mental-health/
 
Amendment 2
The second requested amendment is for a change to the penalty charges imposed for forgetting or failing to pay within the limited timeframe which, it is proposed in Amendment 1 (above), the time to make payment without penalty is increased to 14 days. It is further proposed that penalty charges are amended, reduced to £10 for payment made within 28 days of crossing, £25 within 42 days of crossing and £50 if payment has not been made within 42 days.
 
At present, if you fail to a make payment before midnight the day after you have used the Dartford crossing, a penalty will be charged; £35 for payment within 14 days (14 times the crossing charge), £70 within 28 days (28 times the crossing charge) and £105 any time after 28 days (or 42 times the crossing charge) – You must also pay the initial crossing charge, so that if you have failed to pay within 28 days, you end up paying 43 times the cost of a £2.50 crossing. I believe these penalty charges are excessive, unnecessarily penalising people who have simply forgotten to make payment within what is a limited and arbitrary timeframe.
  
Why these amendments are necessary
In the context of a cost-of-living crisis which affects me and millions of other UK citizens, it has become a struggle to make ends meet. Whilst the £35 charge is in place to act as a deterrent against non-payment of the charge, it is disproportionate when the contravention is so minor; failing or forgetting to pay or the charge within an arbitrary timeframe.
 
Comparing the fine with my Universal Credit payments for example, late payment charges constitute between one-tenth and one-third of my monthly income, which seems like a disproportionate penalty relative to the severity of the contravention.
 
Fairer timeframes need to be established, which will give people more time to pay the charge and reduce the impact of the simple act of forgetting, impacting less on their monthly budget during this cost-of-living crisis many of us are facing, and limit the impact of people’s mental health.
 
For these reasons, it is time for a change to the framework of Dartford crossing timeframes and penalty charging - please sign my petition and let’s make some change for good.