London congestion charging and parking

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Viaccess

Member
Joined
Jan 29, 2017
Messages
9
I suspect most PHEV drivers know that the car is exempt from congestion charging in London (although you need to register your vehicle with TfL first), and perhaps most also know that street parking in pay bays in Westminster is also free. I have only just discovered the latter, so my question to frequent London visitors is this: Do you need to register for free parking, as you do for the congestion charging exemption? Do traffic wardens have a database of exempt vehicles? If you do get a ticket, do you have to appeal, and is this easy to do?

Any tips or other advice would be most welcome!
 
Viaccess said:
I suspect most PHEV drivers know that the car is exempt from congestion charging in London (although you need to register your vehicle with TfL first), and perhaps most also know that street parking in pay bays in Westminster is also free. I have only just discovered the latter, so my question to frequent London visitors is this: Do you need to register for free parking, as you do for the congestion charging exemption? Do traffic wardens have a database of exempt vehicles? If you do get a ticket, do you have to appeal, and is this easy to do?

Any tips or other advice would be most welcome!

BTW it still costs £10 per year to register for "zero" Congestion Charge and it doesn't renew automatically but they do send you a reminder.

For the parking in Westminster you don't need to do anything, as the wardens recognise EV cars. There is still the maximum time limit on a bay (usually 4 hours) but, of course, as you don't register when you park the wardens don't know how long you have been there :lol: but I do move mine every 4 hours or so - never yet had a ticket for overstaying though. If you use a dedicated EV Charging bay there is usually a 3 hour limit and I suspect they will be stricter about enforcement on these, although I no longer use them now they are not free. WARNING don't park on an out of order Charging bay - I did and got a ticket for not charging. I appealed and it was waived as a goodwill gesture.

Finally, I did once get a ticket from a warden who didn't realise it was an EV car - but I simply appealed on-line and it was swiftly cancelled.
 
If you drive into the congestion zone with an unregistered foreign plate exempt car they will often not bother to try and collect the fine.
 
greendwarf said:
Viaccess said:
I suspect most PHEV drivers know that the car is exempt from congestion charging in London (although you need to register your vehicle with TfL first), and perhaps most also know that street parking in pay bays in Westminster is also free. I have only just discovered the latter, so my question to frequent London visitors is this: Do you need to register for free parking, as you do for the congestion charging exemption? Do traffic wardens have a database of exempt vehicles? If you do get a ticket, do you have to appeal, and is this easy to do?

Any tips or other advice would be most welcome!

BTW it still costs £10 per year to register for "zero" Congestion Charge and it doesn't renew automatically but they do send you a reminder.

For the parking in Westminster you don't need to do anything, as the wardens recognise EV cars. There is still the maximum time limit on a bay (usually 4 hours) but, of course, as you don't register when you park the wardens don't know how long you have been there :lol: but I do move mine every 4 hours or so - never yet had a ticket for overstaying though. If you use a dedicated EV Charging bay there is usually a 3 hour limit and I suspect they will be stricter about enforcement on these, although I no longer use them now they are not free. WARNING don't park on an out of order Charging bay - I did and got a ticket for not charging. I appealed and it was waived as a goodwill gesture.

Finally, I did once get a ticket from a warden who didn't realise it was an EV car - but I simply appealed on-line and it was swiftly cancelled.
That's very helpful , thank you.

A follow up question if I may: When the 4 hours maximum have expired, are you no longer able to park in Westminster without payment, or can you simply move to another free space? If the latter, are there any rules about how far away you need to move the car?

I assume that if you park less than 4 hours before the charging times expire (e.g. 6:30pm in most places) you may remain longer throughout the evening?
 
The rules about moving are the same as any other on-street parking bays in UK. Each block of bays has double bar lines at the end. You have to move a new block, not just the next free bay. In Westminster most of the parking is charged by ringing in the "block number" with your registration. The "block number" is displayed on the adjacent notices - so simply move to where there is a different "block number". And, yes, once the restricted hours comes to an end, you can stay as long as you like but watch out as some bays in the West End are up to 8pm!
 
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