The London Assembly today called on the Mayor to demand payment from embassies in the capital owing outstanding fees and fines for the congestion charge.
A motion agreed by the Assembly urged the Mayor to write to the Head of State for each country that is refusing to pay the congestion charge and invite Ambassadors to explain their reasons for the refusal. The motion calls for responses to be published on the Greater London Authority website.
Proposing the motion, Caroline Pidgeon AM said:
"The American and other embassies that dodge payment of the congestion charge are insulting their host city and denying a valuable source of income to Transport for London."
"The congestion charge is not a tax and the vast majority of embassies clearly recognise this. The minority that decide to not follow the rules of this country must now explain in writing how they can justify their actions."
The MayorWatch website has covered the motion here.
The full text of the motion is:
The London Assembly notes that there is currently at least £28million outstanding in unpaid congestion charge fees and fines by foreign embassies in London, and this figure is growing by the month.
The Assembly congratulates the 70% of diplomatic missions that do pay the congestion charge on time, but regrets that some of the worst offenders include the embassies of the United States, Russia, Germany and Japan.
The Assembly notes that the United States Embassy paid the Congestion Charge between February 2003 and July 2005, further notes that the US government has not asked for a refund of the charges paid at that time, and the Assembly would point out to the US government, and other diplomatic missions, that the Congestion Charge is not a tax, but a specific charge for a specific purpose, the money raised solely being allocated to transport projects.
The Assembly further regrets that Transport for London have given up on chasing the embassies that don’t pay the congestion charge and left it in the hands of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to do so.
We therefore call on the Mayor to write to the Head of State of every nation with Congestion Charge payments and fines outstanding, demanding payment and to publish the responses of each country. We also call on the Mayor to use every available opportunity to ‘name and shame’ those countries refusing to pay the congestion charge, and invite each Ambassador of those countries to explain to Londoners why they refuse to and agree to publish those explanations on the GLA website"