Pay-at-barrier toll bridge — no lawful penalty by post

Small toll bridges of this kind (for example Whitchurch, Swinford, Dunham, Kingsland, Whitney-on-Wye, Cartford and Aldwark) are collected AT THE BARRIER under their own private or local Acts: you pay the keeper or booth as you cross, or you do not cross. They operate no automatic number-plate (ANPR) or account system and have no statutory power to pursue an unpaid toll by issuing a penalty or charge notice through the post after the event. A "Penalty Charge Notice", "Unpaid Toll Notice" or similar demand received by post that names one of these crossings is therefore not a lawful civil penalty — it is an administrative error or a scam. Do not pay. Reply requiring the sender to identify the exact statutory power under which it claims to levy a post-event penalty for this crossing; if none is given, the demand is invalid. Report suspected scam demands to Action Fraud.

Legal basis

Small toll bridges are authorised by their individual private or local Acts (for example the Whitchurch Bridge Act and the Swinford Toll Bridge Act) to levy a toll for passage, collected at the crossing itself. Unlike the Dartford Crossing (charged under the Dartford-Thurrock Crossing Charging Scheme, which carries a statutory penalty regime) or ANPR-based road-user-charging schemes, these Acts confer no power to impose a civil penalty or to pursue an "unpaid toll" by notice through the post. Absent an identified statutory power, a posted penalty demand for such a crossing has no legal basis.

Sample appeal wording

Before you send this

Deadline. A late submission can be turned down without your argument being read. Check your notice for the deadline and how it is counted.
Paying may end it. Paying can count as accepting the notice and can close a challenge already under way. Part-paying or acknowledging an old debt can also revive a time limit that had expired.
The amount can change. Check what happens to the sum if you challenge — it may be held, re-offered lower, or keep rising, and fees or enforcement can continue meanwhile.
Use the official route. Use the method, recipient and form your notice specifies, with any reference, evidence and signature it asks for. Sent elsewhere, it may not count.
Only say what is true. Do not copy any statement of fact unless it is true for you, and check the legal point still applies. Delete what does not fit. It may be treated as your statement.
Careful what you volunteer. Avoid unnecessary admissions — naming the driver or accepting responsibility can remove arguments. But answer anything you are legally required to answer, and do include the evidence your ground needs.
Keep the record. Keep what you sent, the attachments, any receipt, and the reply. Note the next deadline.

Sample wording to adapt and send yourself — it may not fit your notice or the stage you are at. Replace the bracketed prompts with your own details; leave any case citation as it is.

The notice names [CROSSING], a small toll bridge where the toll is collected at the barrier as you cross. A crossing of this kind operates no ANPR or account system and has no statutory power to levy a penalty or pursue an "unpaid toll" by post after the event. Unless you can identify the specific statutory power under which this post-event penalty is issued, the demand is invalid. I do not owe, and will not pay, this charge. Please cancel the notice and confirm in writing.

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Pay-at-barrier toll bridge — no lawful penalty by post

Legal basis

Sample appeal wording

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Related appeal grounds

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