Silvertown or Blackwall Tunnel — wrong charge or wrong time

Using the Silvertown or Blackwall Tunnel is only chargeable during certain hours, and the charge varies depending on the time of day and which direction you travelled — peak or off-peak. There is no charge at all overnight. If your penalty notice was issued for a crossing made outside the chargeable hours, or if you were charged the higher peak rate when your crossing was actually off-peak, the ticket may be wrong.

Legal basis

The Transport for London (Silvertown Tunnel and Blackwall Tunnel) road user charging scheme (charging hours and peak/off-peak rates by direction); Road User Charging Schemes (Penalty Charges, Adjudication and Enforcement) (England) Regulations 2013 (SI 2013/1783), reg. 4 — ground that the contravention did not occur (no charge due) or the penalty exceeds the amount applicable.

How to identify this in your case

Look at the exact time and direction of travel shown on your penalty notice. Then check TfL's published charging hours and peak windows. Ask yourself: was your crossing made outside the chargeable hours altogether? Or does your crossing time fall in an off-peak window, but you were charged the higher peak rate? If either of those is true, you may have grounds to challenge.

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.

My crossing on [DATE] at [TIME] was [outside the chargeable hours / off-peak], so [no charge / a lower charge] was due. The PCN is for an amount exceeding that applicable to my crossing, alternatively no contravention occurred. The crossing time is shown by [the ANPR timestamp on the PCN / dashcam].

Beat It writes this argument automatically

Scan your PCN — our AI checks if this ground applies to your specific ticket, drafts a properly-cited appeal letter, and sends it for you where the council takes email — guiding you through their own online form where they use one, so you press submit. The win fee is only charged if you win.

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Sources

https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/publications-and-reports/blackwall-and-silvertown-tunnels-user-charge