Road safety officer fined £120 despite paying Clean Air Zone charge
A road safety officer has been fined for driving through Birmingham's Clean Air Zone despite paying the fare on time.
Corrinna Silver says she is hugely frustrated after believing she had done everything correctly only to be landed with a £120 penalty charge notice (PCN).
She has a receipt to say she paid the charge and thinks many other people could be affected by the same ‘flaw’ of the payment system.
Ms Silver, 49, a mother of three and a road safety officer for Telford and Wrekin Council, visited Birmingham on September 3 in her Mini Cooper to volunteer at the Moseley Folk and Arts Festival and drove through the Clean Air Zone (CAZ).
She paid £8 for the journey on September 6, but then received a fine in the post.
After challenging the PCN, she was told by the Government’s CAZ team she had paid for September 6 rather than September 3. She disputes she has not paid the charge.
Ms Silver has attempted to challenge the fine twice but so far after 15 days has had no response from Birmingham City Council’s CAZ appeals service.
The news comes after civil servant Ruth Costello received 19 fines for the CAZ totalling £2,280 despite never visiting the city in her car and living 160 miles away.
Ms Silver, from Telford, said: “The system is absolutely flawed.
“Who else has it happened to? Who else is in a stressful situation? I am on a zero-hours contract. Money doesn’t grow on trees.
“It is really cruel to punish people who have done the right thing.
“It’s like paying a credit card bill and then being expected to pick out which bits you are paying for. It’s a rubbish system.”
A Birmingham City Council spokesperson said the authority could not comment on individual cases.
But they said: “The council has always made clear its intention to take a fair and reasonable approach to the introduction of the Clean Air Zone.
“In the lead up and since the launch, we have made it very clear that the onus is on drivers to ensure that they pay any entry fees on time and on the correct dates.
“If a driver receives a PCN for not paying the Clean Air Zone daily fee they then have 28 days from the date of issue to submit a challenge through the online portal or in writing.
“The council takes every effort to respond as quickly as possible and, where possible, will take into account any other compelling reasons to cancel the PCN.
“We continue to encourage all drivers to check if their vehicle is subject to the daily fee and if it is to pay the fee within the 13 day payment window or consider more sustainable forms of transport, especially for shorter journeys.”
