END payment of the Congestion Charge for ALL residents who live in the charging zone!!

We, the undersigned believe we should NOT HAVE TO APPLY FOR A RESIDENT’S DISCOUNT. IT SHOULD AUTOMATICALLY BE OUR RIGHT TO BE INCLUDED IN THE EXEMPT CATEGORY AND NOT OFFERED RESIDENT'S DISCOUNTS so as to be APPROVED to drive through the cc zone we’re already living in. Residents have no other ways to get around the charging zone if living in for e.g. Waterloo, Elephant and Castle, Blackfriars, etc

Immediately when we step outside of our front doors we have no choice in incurring a penalty charge notice. This is having an interacting negative impact with parents responsible for taking their children to school, and who are unable to walk or catch the bus with prams due to their medical condition suffered. If parents were to consistently be failing in taking their children to school they’re action would then prompt further actions from relevant educational authorities such as, Social Services and the Borough’s Educational Welfare officers. This may be because as some parents have described:

• On the travelling day they had no money to pay for the charge, had no foreseeable monies coming to them until days later. (The current policy in place only allows late payment by 24 hours and not for e.g. by a week)

• A few parents had no choice but to drive their children to school because their back condition was not officially classed as a disability even though they had been suffering from their condition for many years (6,9,15), and they had no-one else to rely on for help. This left them unable to APPLY for a blue badge even though they could not lift heavy items or walk long distances to school, another parent said: they could not ask someone else to pay the charge for them when they had forgotten or there was an unexpected issue with their own debit card to make payment. Once told by CC staff they had to use a debit card or be penalised they felt very angry and upset at being forced to go against they’re personal morals stating, “if the daily charge can be paid inside a shop using alternative tender why is it a person who has no means to pay with a debit card cannot pay for the previous days charge also inside a shop using for e.g. cash?”

• Restricting previous day payment to debit cards solely is discriminating against those who do not fit into that social grouping. It excludes them and creates injustices. From the examples above the say they have amassed unnecessary debt because of congestion charging. This may well have been avoided if TFL had implemented the correct policies in place from the first instance so as to reflect fairness for all.