JEFF PRESTRIDGE: ULEZ nice for driver whose automobile was on again of lorry!

The Mayor of London’s money-making Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) has gone down like a lead balloon with many motorists because it was expanded in late August final yr.

There have been ‘honk if you happen to hate ULEZ’ demonstrations in London whereas greater than 1,000 ULEZ cameras have both been broken or stolen. Yet Sadiq Khan has not been for turning.

The scheme, designed to restrict dangerous air pollution (actually?), implies that anybody with a non-compliant automobile should pay a each day £12.50 charge to drive inside London. Failure to pay the cost promptly can lead to a nice of as much as £180. Some 60,000 automobile homeowners – of petrol automobiles registered earlier than 2006 and diesel automobiles registered earlier than 2015 – are paying the each day cost.

Louise Matz, an accountant from Pinner in North-West London, has paid greater than £300 in ULEZ prices for the reason that scheme was launched. To guarantee she by no means received fined, she arrange an ‘auto-pay’ account with Transport for London (TfL).

In January, she determined sufficient was sufficient and bought her ULEZ non-compliant Kia for a compliant Nissan Micra. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency duly notified her that she was not the proprietor of the Kia. Unsure as as to whether she had any excellent ULEZ prices, she saved open her account so that they might be paid from her checking account.

Sign of the instances: There have been ‘honk if you happen to hate ULEZ’ demonstrations in London whereas greater than 1,000 ULEZ cameras have both been broken or stolen

Last Tuesday, Louise obtained her month-to-month ULEZ assertion for February and was shocked to find that she had incurred a £12.50 cost on February 5 – ten days after disposing of her Kia.

The supporting digicam image confirmed her automobile on a transporter lorry in Enfield, North London – presumably on its approach to be auctioned. Having efficiently challenged a earlier cost as a result of a ULEZ digicam confused the ‘C’ on somebody’s else’s quantity plate with the ‘G’ on hers, she assumed she would don’t have any drawback overturning the £12.50 invoice.

But, bizarrely, TfL stated she was nonetheless responsible for the nice. This is as a result of she had not eliminated the Kia from her auto-pay account on the time it was caught on digicam.

In its letter to Louise, TfL stated: ‘We’re unable to make an adjustment/offer you a refund as we have now reviewed the automobile picture and consider that the cost has been raised appropriately.’

What utter tosh. We already know that the ULEZ scheme is unfair, broadly disliked and a tax on many hard-working individuals.

What Louise’s expertise highlights is that the scheme is operated by individuals whose sole obligation is to boost as a lot income as doable for TfL. Common sense simply would not get a glance in. If you’ve achieved the identical as Louise and jettisoned your non-compliant ULEZ automobile in favour of 1 that will get Mr Khan’s seal of approval, do not forget to take away your previous motor from TfL’s auto-pay service.

I’ve taken up Louise’s case with TfL and can report again once I get a response. Hopefully, TfL will see the insanity of its methods and refund Louise the cash it had no proper to take from her.

The good buildings you can financial institution on… 

An enormous thanks to all these pretty readers who’ve taken the difficulty over the previous few days to appoint their most eye-catching financial institution department – nonetheless open, closed (for good) or repurposed.

This follows a visit earlier this month to Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, the place I stumbled upon a powerful HSBC department whose roots return to 1810 when it was the house of Stratford Old Bank. An imposing Victorian gothic constructing which to this present day nonetheless takes the breath away.

Some of the images you despatched in of native branches had been jaw-dropping, confirming simply how necessary they as soon as had been to the communities they served. Many had been – and stay – grandiose buildings, dominating the streets.

Although area prevents me from displaying all these splendid examples of architectural banking excellence, three caught my eye. The first is Royal Bank of Scotland’s flagship department in St Andrew Square, Edinburgh – put ahead by 49-year-old actuary Kirsten Watt who lives in Perth.

Kirsten used to work for the insurance coverage arm of RBS, in a constructing near the department. ‘I liked moving into there at lunchtime,’ she remembers, ‘and marvelling on the measurement of the banking corridor, its dome ceiling and decorative design. I by no means received bored of it.’

High life: (From high left down) RBS HQ in Edinburgh, Rainham’s The Greedy Banker, NatWest in Burslem, and proper, Arnold Bennett

While Kirsten misplaced her job beneath the madcap reign of RBS boss Fred ‘The Shred’ Goodwin, she quickly discovered employment at a rival monetary providers firm. She provides: ‘Just a few Christmases in the past, I went again to the department with one among my two daughters and was blown away once more. It’s a improbable constructing, in and out.’

The former dwelling of service provider Sir Lawrence Dundas, the constructing was acquired by RBS slightly below 200 years in the past. Its magnificence means it’s an integral a part of strolling excursions across the new city. Whether it stays integral to RBS’s ever-dwindling department community, solely time will inform.

The second is the imposing NatWest department in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, a listed constructing which has been empty since 2017.

Resident Carol Gorton says the gothic-style department, that began life because the District Bank in 1870, usually featured within the novels of native author Arnold Bennett who wrote prolifically between the Eighteen Nineties and Nineteen Thirties. Carol, secretary of the 200-member robust Arnold Bennett Society, says Burslem (Bursley in Bennett’s novels) has now misplaced all its main banks. ‘It is struggling on many ranges,’ says Carol who’s busy organising the society’s annual Arnold Bennett Day in June. ‘Empty retailers dominate. The NatWest constructing and the previous Lloyds department level to a previous when the world was thriving.’

Finally, retired charity employee Jill Sidders, who lives simply outdoors Sittingbourne in Kent, tells me that the previous Barclays financial institution in close by Rainham is now a pub known as The Greedy Banker. ‘The financial institution did not have any architectural advantage,’ she admits, ‘however the title change was meritorious. I’ve by no means been contained in the pub, however I do have a quiet chuckle to myself every time I stroll previous it.’

Thanks for all of your photos and emails.

‘Debt Awareness Week’ goals to assist these with cash worries

No one likes to speak about private debt. Most individuals ignore it, hoping it can miraculously go away. Of course, it would not. Sadly, issues with paying down debt are on the rise as many households’ funds are being stretched to breaking level.

Credit card debt – and rates of interest – proceed to rise whereas mortgage arrears at the moment are at a seven-year excessive.

It is due to this fact well timed that charity StepChange (stepchange.org) will tomorrow launch its tenth ‘Debt Awareness Week’.

The overriding message that the charity needs to drill house is that these scuffling with debt mustn’t bury their head within the sand. They ought to search recommendation.

If you might be in such a place, PLEASE heed its necessary message.