It's the little things...

Here's a dilemma, which hides a worrying trend.

Today, I drove into the congestion zone in London. This was not a dilemma. I drove a car into Central London in order to give a Christian talk for some students. No big deal. Driving in may take some time but it means you get home very quickly. The trick is to time your drive so that you enter the congestion zone just after 6pm, so that you don't have to pay the £8 charge.

This time, there was a problem.

The traffic was lighter than expected, so I approached the zone earlier than I might otherwise have done. Plus I was distracted. I was dropping off my sister at a tube station, drove off and into the zone. I looked at my clock a little later it was 6.05. But for how long had I been in the zone? I was impossible to tell. There are no signs up which say "Zone no longer in force" or a lit up blonde face of Major Boris with a speech bubble saying "The congestion charges are on me!" So how do I know if I have to pay the charge?

One would have thought it would be simple. I phone them up and say "Here's my car registration number. Do I owe you £8?" And they'd tell me. I did that. And they didn't tell me. Couldn't tell me. The answer was "Don't know."

How can they not know? If I don't pay, they'll send me a bill, so they must know. In fact, if I don't pay £8 today, or £10 tomorrow, they'll send me a bill for £120, which they will cheerfully cut in half to a mere £60 if I pay within 14 days.

But here's the question: Why do they not know? What sort of an enforcement system is it which refuses to yield the answer to whether you are obliged to pay until it delivers you a graceless bill for £120. It's the slow-lane to a Kafka-esque world. It may not get there. But it is headed in that direction. This is a sad and worrying trend. And to avoid worry, I paid.