Nearly 1,000 motorists have been refunded after they were wrongly charged under Sadiq Khan‘s hated Ulez scheme when a camera was put in the wrong place in northwest London.
Drivers reacted angrily after they were charged while driving through Harrow’s Old Redding Junction, which is outside the Ultra Low Emission Zone area.
Transport for London (TfL) was forced to correct the blunder and switched off the camera before moving it.
The organisation said that the 927 drivers who were incorrectly charged through auto payment accounts have since been refunded.
The expansion of Ulez to all of London’s 32 boroughs on August 29 has proved controversial, with owners of vehicles which do not meet emission standards facing a £12.50 charge per day to drive within the capital.
Wrong way! Drivers reacted angrily after they were charged while driving through Harrow’s Old Redding Junction, which is outside the Ultra Low Emission Zone area
More than 900 motorists were wrongly charged under Sadiq Khan ‘s hated Ulez scheme after a camera was put in the wrong place in northwest London
Deputy leader of Harrow Council Marilyn Ashton says she has been inundated with complaints about the charges.
The mother and grandmother, who has lived in the area for nearly five decades, said: ‘If you are driving down Old Redding in a non-compliant car, you shouldn’t have to pay a charge as those roads are exempt.
READ MORE: ULEZ WARDENS WEAR BALACLAVS TO HIDE THEIR FACES AFTER WEEKS OF CLASHES WITH ‘BLADE RUNNERS’ GANG
‘Since it went up on August 29, people thought, ‘I’ll go that way and not have to pay anything’, and had to pay the £12.50.
‘It’s not in London at all, which is partially why it’s a terrible idea to do this.
‘All that was wrong is that the cameras were facing these roads. More than 900 and something people had to pay £12.50 and that’s terrible.
‘It went on for weeks and people started complaining and writing in. But it took TfL weeks to say, “We got it wrong” and move the camera.
‘It’s unacceptable, incompetent and disgraceful.’
Cllr Ashton, who supported the central London Ulez zones but was against the most recent expansion into outer London, believes Mayor Khan owes motorists fined incorrectly an apology.
‘It’s an embarrassment for Sadiq Khan,’ she said. ‘The trouble is, I don’t think he’s capable of feeling embarrassment.
‘He’s arrogant. He doesn’t seem to think he can get anything wrong. Well, this went wrong. He should have apologised but he still hasn’t.
‘We’re not talking about half a dozen people, here: it’s hundreds of people.
‘There was a woman at the hairdresser saying she didn’t understand it. It had happened to her four times.
‘I just think it’s blatant carelessness, incompetence and arrogance.
‘It wasn’t hard to crack it, it wasn’t exactly rocket science. I find it extraordinary, really.’
Cllr Ashton added that the roll-out of Ulez to the very limits of the city was a bad idea, saying: ‘There is a feeling of resentment in the area towards Ulez.
‘We have spent millions of pounds on these cameras just to catch a few people going into small roads.
‘This total fiasco of Old Redding is a symptom of not thinking this through.
‘These are residents who don’t get a vote in next year’s Mayoral election. They are completely disenfranchised.
‘I was talking to a woman who works at Heathrow and lives in Bushey who has to go into the Ulez zone and pay £25 to go to and from work.
‘Surely Khan must realise that’s ridiculous? As someone who says he cares about people, how can he do this to people?
‘It was a great idea in central London but we don’t need it in outer London..’
A spokesperson for TfL said: ‘We apologise for this error. Unfortunately this camera was incorrectly positioned.
‘It was switched off once we were informed of the error and has been repositioned. We have refunded any charges that were wrongly issued.’
TfL added that all cameras on the London boundary have been checked and that all cameras are now correctly positioned.
In an interview with Talk TV , the masked maverick – who uses Ben as a fake name – claimed to have wrecked 150 of the traffic cameras since they were expanded across the capital’s boroughs on August 29
Yesterday, a member of the infamous Blade Runners group vowed to continue tearing down Ulez cameras – telling the Mayor of London: ‘We won’t stop until you stop. That’s the bottom line.’
In an interview with Talk TV, the masked maverick – who uses Ben as a fake name – claimed to have wrecked 150 of the traffic cameras since their rollout at the end of August.
Ben, wearing a balaclava and hood, is seen in the footage using an angle-grinder to cut down a Ulez camera mounted on a traffic light in just four seconds.
The father-of-three, aged in his forties, says he goes out in the dead of night several days a week flouting the law to carry out what he calls ‘unpaid voluntary work’.
Speaking to TalkTV, Ben claims he’s behind a near total blackout of enforcement cameras in the Bromley area, one of the Greater London boroughs where the scheme has been extended.
Ben insists support among the public is widespread with many hailing them as heroes, saying, ‘We are the voice of the people. You experienced the cheers against ULEZ right there and then you can see we are reflecting the voice of the public.’
Ben – who has been a member of the group for several months, and says membership is growing: ‘It started off as a small group of people and it has gradually grown.
‘Since the expansion went live on August 29, numbers have increased significantly. We’re like a pack of lone wolves. We sometimes work together, we work in isolation, and we all have this common goal.’
Ben, wearing a balaclava and hood, is seen in the footage using an angle-grinder to cut down a Ulez camera mounted on a traffic light in just four seconds.
READ MORE: Road workers resort to sticking crude handmade signs to their vehicles to ‘avoid being targeted by anti-ULEZ vandals’
Ben says mayor Sadiq Khan is targeting the most vulnerable people at the worst possible time as they struggle through a cost of living crisis. He explains: ‘The members of society that have less disposable income are hit the hardest because if they can’t afford to change their vehicle, they’ll be subject to that daily charge no matter what.
He claims the ULEZ network has been installed to ‘catch everyone out’.
Ben says: ‘It seems like the Mayor’s office and the Government are not doing anything for the people. Unfair is just sort of scratching the surface on how bad it is for them. It’s terrible. It’s completely unjust.’
Asked if he could see any merit in ULEZ tackling the dangerously high air pollution levels, he said: ‘If the figures and the statements that Sadiq Khan made were true then of course there would be merit but he doesn’t speak the truth about anything.’
Asked if he sees anything wrong with being a vigilante, Ben replied: ‘I never expected to be part of anything like this and taking these kind of steps. We don’t disrupt the general public in their daily activities, we don’t block roads, we don’t glue ourselves to buildings, the floor – we target the camera network itself.
‘I can see how it could be viewed as being incorrect but lawful rebellion is totally okay in my book,’ adding he would go to prison for the cause, saying, ‘It’s a risk I’m prepared to take and do take.’
He revealed he has taken down over 150 enforcement cameras alone, and vowed those numbers ‘will continue to go up’.
Responding to the footage, London Minister Paul Scully said: ‘I can understand the frustration but I can’t condone the vandalism. You can’t pick and choose the laws you want to adhere to.
‘Nonetheless Sadiq Khan has shown through all of this that he is just not listening.
‘I’ve got one camera near to where I live that just points towards the entrance of the Royal Marsden cancer hospital.’
