Dart Charge and Toll Enforcement: M6 Toll, Mersey, Tyne, Humber

Nobody can be sent to your door over a toll collected under a concession or a local Act until somebody sues you and wins.

Reading the notice for which of those two things it is decides everything else: the deadline, the tribunal, the court form, and whether a bailiff is a realistic prospect at all, the same distinction that runs through traffic and parking enforcement generally. The label on the envelope often will not tell you, so the wording inside has to.

The dividing line

A charging scheme penalty follows the statutory pipeline: penalty charge notice, representations, an appeal to an independent adjudicator if they are rejected, a charge certificate, registration at the Traffic Enforcement Centre, an order for recovery, and then a warrant of control.

A toll debt has no such pipeline. The operator issues its own notice, adds its own administration charges, and eventually hands the file to a debt collection agency. There is no adjudicator and no order for recovery, because none of that machinery is available to it, and enforcement agents become possible only after a county court judgment.

Dart Charge

The Dartford Crossing charge applies between 6am and 10pm, every day of the year, and must be paid by midnight the day after you cross.

Motorcycles are free. A car pays £3.50, or £2.80 on a pre-pay account. A two axle van, bus or coach pays £4.20, or £3.60 pre-pay, and anything with more than two axles pays £8.40, or £7.20 pre-pay.

Miss the deadline and a penalty charge notice usually follows: £70, reduced to £35 if paid within 14 days, and increased to £105 if it is not paid. You have 28 days from receiving it, and the notice carries a representation slip for challenging it.

If the charge certificate stage passes unpaid, the charging authority registers the debt at the Traffic Enforcement Centre and an order for recovery is served. Dart Charge is a road user charging scheme with the Secretary of State for Transport as the charging authority, which is why the paperwork can name National Highways rather than a council. At that point the court form is a witness statement on form TE9, or form TE7 if you need more time, filed within 21 days of notice of the order being served on you.

Regulation 19 of the Road User Charging Schemes (Penalty Charges, Adjudication and Enforcement) (England) Regulations 2013 sets the grounds: that you did not receive the penalty charge notice; that you made representations but received no notice of rejection; that you appealed to an adjudicator and had no response, the appeal was undetermined when the charge certificate was served, or it was decided in your favour; or that you have already paid the penalty charge. Unlike the London road user charging route, payment is a ground here.

Mersey Gateway

The Mersey Gateway and the Silver Jubilee Bridge form a road user charging scheme with Halton Borough Council as the charging authority, operated under the merseyflow brand. Non-payment produces a penalty charge notice of £50, reduced to £25 if paid within 14 days and rising to £75 if it is still unpaid after 28 days, in each case on top of the original toll.

Representations go to merseyflow within 28 days, and a rejection may be appealed to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal, the same independent tribunal that hears Dart Charge and clean air zone appeals. Beyond that the route is identical to Dart Charge: charge certificate, registration at the Traffic Enforcement Centre, order for recovery, and then TE9 or TE7. Merseyflow's own guidance puts the order for recovery at 42 days with £11 of court fees added, and enforcement partners instructed 21 days after that, so the arithmetic moves quickly.

Clean air zones outside London

Several English cities operate charging clean air zones, and these sit in the same statutory family as Dart Charge and Mersey Gateway rather than with London's ULEZ. An unpaid clean air zone charge can produce a penalty charge notice enforced under the 2013 Regulations, so the challenge at court stage is again a TE9, with TE7 for more time.

London is the exception, because the Congestion Charge, the LEZ and the ULEZ run under Greater London legislation and use a sworn statutory declaration instead. See TfL penalties for that route, and TE9 or PE3 for the two forms side by side.

The M6 Toll is a contract, not a penalty

The M6 Toll is a private road operated by Midland Expressway Limited under a concession. Its terms and conditions describe the agreement between the operator and the customer, and where a toll is not paid during the journey the operator issues a deferred payment notice rather than a penalty charge notice.

Payment is expected within six days of the day of issue to avoid further administration charges. If it stays unpaid, the operator's terms say the outstanding toll plus £70 of administration charges is passed to a third party debt collection agency.

Nothing in that route touches the Traffic Enforcement Centre. There is no adjudicator, no order for recovery, no TE9 and no warrant of control unless and until Midland Expressway brings a county court claim and obtains judgment. If a claim form arrives, the defence is a contract argument rather than a statutory ground, and the position closely resembles the one on private parking charges. If a judgment has already been entered against you without your knowledge, setting aside a CCJ is the application to consider.

The Tyne Tunnels

TT2 collects the Tyne Tunnels toll, which is payable by the day after crossing. Miss it and an unpaid toll charge notice can be issued.

The published escalation runs from £30 plus the toll on the notice, to £60 plus the toll at reminder stage, to £100 plus the toll at final notice, after which the file moves to a collection agency which can add up to a further £79. TT2's own guidance describes handing the case to that agency, and makes no mention of a penalty charge notice, an adjudicator or the Traffic Enforcement Centre.

Treat it as a civil debt: correspond in writing, dispute it in writing if it is wrong, and remember that an enforcement agent can only act once a court has given judgment and a warrant or writ has issued on it.

The Humber Bridge

Humber Bridge tolls are collected by the Humber Bridge Board. Where a toll is not paid by midnight the day after travel, the system requests the keeper's details from the DVLA and issues an unpaid toll notification with an administration fee of £25 added to the toll.

The registered keeper is treated as liable for unpaid tolls and the added administrative charges, and continued non-payment can be passed to an external debt collection agency. The Board's appeal route closes once the matter has gone to that agency, which makes early written challenge the practical moment to act.

Mersey road tunnels and the Severn crossings

The Queensway and Kingsway tunnels under the Mersey are separate from the Mersey Gateway and are run directly by Merseytravel, using barriers and T-FLOW accounts rather than camera billing. Because you cannot pass without paying or holding an account, unpaid toll cases are unusual; an administrative charge of £16 can be added where outstanding tolls or escort fees remain unpaid after 14 days. This page does not state a court route for a Mersey tunnel toll, because that was not established from primary sources.

The Severn crossings have been free since 17 December 2018, so a demand relating to a crossing after that date is worth checking carefully unless it plainly relates to something else.

Reading your notice

Three questions usually settle which route you are on.

1. What does it call itself? A penalty charge notice naming a charging scheme is the statutory route. A deferred payment notice, an unpaid toll charge notice or an unpaid toll notification is a toll debt.
2. Does it offer an independent appeal, or mention an order for recovery? Only the statutory route reaches the Traffic Penalty Tribunal, and only it reaches Northampton. See the Traffic Enforcement Centre for what happens there.
3. Has anybody obtained a judgment? On the toll route, that is the step that has to exist before an enforcement agent has any authority at all.

If an enforcement agent has already written to you about a crossing penalty, get the reference and the instructing authority in writing and take advice quickly. Our help page sets out how.