The Humber Bridge Board has “sincerely apologised” after Alex Walker was fined despite attempting to make payment for two crossings on June 6
Alex Walker crossed the bridge twice on June 6 and was fined(Image: Submitted)
A conservation worker who regularly uses the Humber Bridge for his work rescuing hedgehogs has vowed never to travel to Lincolnshire again after he was slapped with two fines in the same day – despite attempting to pay the £2 crossing fee.
The Humber Bridge Board has since refunded Alex Walker the money he paid and has “sincerely apologised”, confirming a payment attempt was made. Alex wants to let other drivers know that they may be given unexpected fines if they do not have success with the online payment system while crossing the bridge.
Alex’s work vehicle was picked up on automatic number plate recognition cameras and he was issued with two £27 fines for failing to pay the tolls for two crossings on June 6. He was travelling to Lincolnshire for field work as a trustee of the Hedgehog Conservation Organisation.
Alex, 33, who is from Manchester but regularly travels to Hull and Lincolnshire for work, said: “I was travelling over doing a bit of field work because I work for a hedgehog conservation charity. As we were passing over I tried to pay the toll on my phone but there was a connectivity issue. I’ve got the history of me accessing the website on my phone.
“I thought I’d paid it then two weeks later they said I owed them for two journeys over. I was a bit annoyed about that. You can download an app or you can go on the webpage. You can go across and, to my mind, it had given a notification I’d paid but it hasn’t. The internet history does indicate I’d tried to pay.”
Alex says there used to be a team of “lovely, polite people” who used to work on the bridge, who were available to take payment manually. He said the system now “lacks the necessary wifi or signal on the bridge to deal with payments made”.
“I’ve used it loads of times in the past,” he said. “I used to go to a toll booth and the people used to be really polite and it was a nice experience. It made it a bit of a thing going over the bridge. (Now) it’s just transactional and if it doesn’t work you get a fine.” Alex says he plans to avoid the bridge, opting for the M62 instead, and has even suggested he will “never travel to Lincolnshire again”.
He received two letters on June 11 saying his vehicle “crossed the Humber Bridge without paying the Toll Charge in breach of Section 11 of the Humber Bridge Act 2013.” The letter continues: “The evidence of this vehicle crossing without the required toll having been paid was detected by a violation camera with automatic number plate recognition.”
The letter told Alex to pay an “Unpaid Toll Charge” of £27. Which consists of the original £2 toll charge “plus the Humber Bridge Board’s administration costs and expense of £25.” He was issued with two £27 fines for the two journeys he made across the bridge that day.
“They said there’s no record of me attempting to pay, but my internet history proves I tried,” Alex said. He appealed the fines, and found out on June 20 that the appeal had not been upheld. He says the Humber Bridge Board then halved the overall fee. “I just paid the fine, but it’s a lot higher than a £4 payment. It could be a much wider scandal if loads of people are trying to pay and there’s no internet up there then people could have failed payments and they could get a fine for it.”
A spokesperson for the Humber Bridge said: “We are grateful for you bringing this to our attention. We have reviewed this case in light of the additional information provided and have been able to locate the unsuccessful payment attempt made by Mr Walker.
“In accordance with our internal policy, where we can confirm that a payment attempt was made and this is the customer’s first time using the new system, the administration fees should be waived. We sincerely apologise that this did not happen on this occasion. We have already refunded the administration fees to Mr Walker and we have also discussed this matter internally to help ensure the correct process is followed in future.”
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