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(page revised 8 May 2023)
(page created 2 July 2019)
HOME page   Main Mersey Gateway Penalties page

star WARNING. IN FEBRUARY 2023 A HIGH COURT JUDGE REVERSED THE DECISIONS MADE BY ADJUDICATORS OVER THE PREVIOUS FIVE YEARS. HE RULED THAT THE ENFORCEMENT OF THE PENALTIES WAS LEGAL.
THIS HUMPTY DUMPTY DECISION MEANS THAT SOME OF OUR PREVIOUS ADVICE NO LONGER APPLIES. WE HAVE TRIED TO REFLECT THE NEW SITUATION IN OUR OTHER PAGES DEALING WITH THE PENALTIES BUT THE PAGE BELOW IS STILL BEING REVISED

Background

  • What follows is the legal position as it was before the High Court judge's ruling on 14th February 2023 (it does not cover what happened between 2019 and 2022, but there was no material change in that period).
    This is the judge's Order in favour of the tolls establishment
    This is the judge's full ruling - 61 pages

  • Despite what the judge said still we believe that the tolls and the enforcement are illegal. But it is the people who impose the tolls who have the money and the influence. The current position is that it is extremely unlikely that anyone will be able to successfully challenge a penalty, whether it be on legal grounds or any thing else.

  • The legality of the tolls was one of the issues raised by the National Alliance Against Tolls at the Public Inquiry in 2009.
    The issue of the legality of the method of enforcement was not raised at the Inquiry as the plan at that time was to have tolls booths and there was no need for any enforcement procedures.

  • Our advice has always been that the illegality does NOT mean that you should not pay the tolls or that if they chase you for payment of tolls and penalties that you can ignore them. We said that the establishment would apply the rules as if it was all legal.

  • The first stage of trying to dispute a penalty charge notice is to make a 'representation' to the charging authority. In the case of the Mersey bridge tolls, the charging authority is nominally Halton Borough Coucil. This is a fiction, as virtually everything is done by a company called Emovis Operations Mersey Ltd who use the tradename 'Merseyflow'. The company is ultimately owned by Abertis based in Spain.

  • Obviously, toll operators are quite likely to turn down representations, so the legislation has a second dispute stage where drivers can appeal against penalties to 'adjudicators'. The legislation does not make the adjudicators imdependent, they are appointed by the 'enforcement authorities' and are not part of the courts system. In practice they are not appointed by individual authorities. Instead the English and Welsh authorities have joined together to form the Parking and Traffic Regulations Outside London Joint Committee(known as PATROL). It governs and funds a body called the Traffic Penalty Tribunal which oversees the individual adjudicators. The Tribunal uses a gov.uk address but is not subject to some rules, in particular it does not have to comply with the Freedom of Information rules, so requests for information rely on their goodwill.
    Fleet News 23 Oct 2017 - Traffic Penalty Tribunal to decide appeals against penalties issued for not paying the new Mersey Gateway toll   Some comments made in 2010 about the independence of the Tribunal.

    October 2017 to February 2018

  • The new bridge opened just after midnight on Friday 13th October 2017. It was done in a bit of a rush in order to pre-empt any protests. We don't know when the first penalty charge notices were issued but it was probably about three weeks later. As far as the public knew there was no problem over the legality, though there were complaints about the penalties over the following months-
    L'pool Echo 8 Oct 2017 - Fury builds over Mersey Gateway toll as drivers anticipate getting fined
    L'pool Echo 19 Oct 2017 - Is Mersey Gateway bridge "milking the motorist" or "technology at its best"?
    Daily Post Wales 10 Nov 2017 - Mersey toll bridge anger by Liverpool Airport travellers hit by fines
    Daily Post Wales 11 Nov 2017 - What hundreds of furious Daily Post readers had to say about new Mersey toll bridge
    Daily Post Wales 13 Nov 2017 - Mersey toll bridge operator responds to angry drivers hit with fines

    World (also in Warrington Guardian) 15 Nov 2017 - NEW BRIDGE: 35,000 fines issued for non payment of tolls in first four weeks
    L'pool Echo 16 Nov 2017 - Drivers tell tales of Mersey Gateway woe but bosses say "it's really popular"
    Daily Post Wales (also in Chester Chronicle) 17 Nov 2017 - Mersey Gateway drivers rack up £50,000 worth of fines in just SEVEN DAYS
    L'pool Echo 17 Nov 2017 - Is Mersey Gateway bridge "milking the motorist" or "technology at its best"?
    L'pool Echo 17 Nov 2017 - Driver fined TEN TIMES for crossing the Mersey Gateway bridge

    L'pool Echo 20 Nov 2017 - Mersey Gateway bosses have ordered drivers to pay more than £1m in fines in the first month
    Daily Post Wales 20 Nov 2017 - Toll bridge drivers hit with £1m in fines in a month
    20 Nov 2017 - John McGoldrick, a spokesman for Scrap Mersey Tolls managed to get on BBC and ITV local news talking about the issue of fines.
    Daily Post Wales 21 Nov 2017 - Driver wins appeal over Mersey toll bridge fine...and this is how he did it
    L'pool Echo (also in Chester Chronicle) 21 Nov 2017 - Man fined for not paying toll on Mersey Gateway bridge - but he's never crossed it
    L'pool Echo 22 Nov 2017 - Mersey Gateway say 50,000 fines in bridge's first month is "relatively small" number

    L'pool Echo (also in Chester Chronicle) 23 Nov 2017 - Landmark ruling could affect all Mersey Gateway fine appeals
    L'pool Echo 27 Nov 2017 - Why you only have 24 hours to pay Mersey Gateway bridge toll
    L'pool Echo 27 Nov 2017 - Former Liverpool star slams Mersey Gateway tolls system in Twitter outburst - and plenty of others agree
    L'pool Echo 1 Dec 2017 - Mersey Gateway users get extra 24 hours to pay fines after website CRASHES
    L'pool Echo (also in Chester Chronicle) 1 Dec 2017 - How I avoided paying my 28 Mersey Gateway fines

    World 5 Dec 2017 - MP blasts £1m fines levied on drivers for failing to pay tolls on Mersey Gatway
    World 13 Jan 2018 - 'Mersey Gateway fleecing innocent motorists'
    Observer 12 Feb 2018 - Mersey Gateway toll fines prompt string of appeals
    Observer 12 Feb 2018 - Mersey Gateway toll fines prompt string of appeals Highways Magazine 27 Feb 2018 - Questions over ANPR time settings put fines at risk

    March 2018 to May 2018

  • Then in early March 2018, there was a curious development. Halton Council announced a consultation on changing the Order that authorised the tolls-
    Consultation: Proposed Changes to Road User Charging Scheme Order

    Making an Order is about the only power that the Council has over the tolls. What was curious was that the changes proposed in the consultation were trivial. The consultation was to close only a few weeks later, on the 29th.
    There were various news reports-
    L'pool Echo 3 Mar 2018 - Disabled drivers and students set to get free Mersey Gateway travel
    Daily Post Wales 5 Mar 2018 - Proposals to slash Mersey Gateway tolls
    World 6 Mar 2018 - Bridge toll changes could see more disabled drivers and students travel free over Mersey Gateway
    L'pool Echo 8 Mar 2018 - Have your say on who should cross the Mersey Gateway for free
    World 9 Mar 2018 - Views wanted on proposed changes to Mersey Gateway bridge toll eligibility
    Place North West 12 Mar 2018 - Halton consults on Gateway toll charges.

  • There were some more stories about the penalties over the next few weeks-
    ITV 19 Mar 2018 - Drivers fined £3 million in toll fines on Mersey Gateway Bridge
    World 22 Mar 2018 - Campaigners blast Mersey Gateway toll charges issued at a rate of 800,000 a year as "staggering"

  • Then on Friday 6th April 2018 the Tribunal issued a statement which revealed that on 16th February an adjudicator had found that the tolls were not enforceable because of 'procedural improprieties'. This followed an appeal made on 30th December 2017 by a 'Miss C'.
    The Tribunal also published an eight page Tribunal decision. It gave two main reasons why the adjudicator considered that the tolls were illegal.
    One reason was that proper notice was not given of when the tolls would start.
    The other reason was that the 'Road User Charging Scheme Order' did not specify what the toll was, instead it specified a range of tolls with the Council free to say what the toll was within the range. The adjudicator ruled that this way of specifying the toll did not comply with the national regulations.
    Neither the statement nor the eight page document are still available.

    The group tried to make contact with 'Miss C', who it seemed was a stranger to this area, but did not manage to do so.

  • Given the importance of the decision there was some speculation as to the delay. Our conclusion was that the Tribunal were giving time for the errors to be corrected before they let the public know.

  • There were various news stories. Though given the potential earthquake, there was not that much attention and nothing nationally-
    BBC 9 Apr 2018 - Mersey Gateway Bridge toll charges 'illegal'
    Daily Post Wales 9 Apr 2018 - Legality of Mersey Gateway bridge charge in doubt after watchdog decision
    L'pool Echo 10 Apr 2018 - Do I still have to pay the toll and fines for the Mersey Gateway bridge?

  • The trail is no longer available, but we learnt that the Tribunal issued 'directions' on 12th January 2018 and made their formal decision on 16th February. So the Tribunal - and the those who ran the toll operation - seem to have been aware of what was happening nearly three months before they made anything public.

  • It was now apparent why, back on the 8th March, the Council had launched the consultation on "Proposed changes to Road User Charging Scheme Order". The Council had said that the purpose of the new order was to make changes "which could see even more users receive unlimited travel across the Mersey Gateway Bridge". This could now be seen as a deceit by the Council as the proposed changes were trivial and would affect almost no one. The true purpose of the Order was to try and comply with what the adjudicator had said about specifying toll levels.

  • On 18th April 2018 the Council rushed through the new Tolls Order in an attempt to correct some of the errors that had been found by the Tribunal. It emerged that as well as what was in the adjudicator's decision, the Tribunal had also pointed out other errors in the Tolls Order. In the event the passing of the new Order was confused and broke the law for conduct of Council business.

  • Whether the new tolls Order was valid or not initially made no difference, as nobody bothered to correct the wording on the Penalty Charge Notices for a month.

  • Halton Council asked the Tribunal to review their decision. The Tribunal agreed that they would and there was a hearing on Tuesday 8th May 2018 in Halton. The hearing was held in public at a Runcorn hotel and members of the group held a protest outside.

  • Following the haering but before the decision, on 11th May, the Crossings Board issued a statement- Business as usual on the Mersey Gateway following Traffic Penalty Tribunal hearing.

  • The adjudicator's 23 page decision was released on 18th May. As with other documents, the document has since dissapeared from the web. But the decision confirmed that tolls on the new Mersey 'Gateway' bridge were illegal.

  • The review hearing on the 8th had got some attention from local radio, but looking back now any news reports about the review hearing or decision have disappeared.

  • Following the release of the review decision, this statement was made by "a spokesperson for the Mersey Gateway Crossings Board" (it is still on their website but the link does not work) -
    "We are disappointed by this decision. We will now take time to review today's decision with our external legal advisors and consider our next steps. Since 19th April 2018 a new Charging Order has been in place. This new Charging Order now regulates the tolling on Mersey Gateway and it's really important that everyone who uses the crossing pays their toll charge to avoid the risk of getting a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN)."
  • We encouraged people to demand refunds of what they had paid in tolls or penalties. Again, any coverage we got at the time has disappeared apart from these -
    Times (behind a paywall) 18 May 2018 - Drivers demand refunds as toll is ruled a bridge too far
    L'pool Echo 21 May 2018 - How Mersey Gateway toll refunds COULD happen after legal action warning

  • At the end of the month, the Echo had a big piece on the penalties, though it did not mention the legal issue-
    L'pool Echo 30 May 2018 - Mersey Gateway bridge has made £ 20 MILLION in six months - but how much is through fines?

    June 2018 to xx 2018

  • For various reasons we thought that the tolls were still not enforceable, despite the new Charging Order made on the 19th April and the new wording on PCNs from mid May. In any case there was a new element. Damian Curzon from Widnes decided to challenge the system. As a Halton resident he was in the Local User Discount Scheme and so did not have to pay tolls. In order to challenge the system he left the LUDS and made two crossings on 7th June 2018. This resulted in PCNs, Statutory representations and an appeal at the beginning of August to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal. Merseyflow usually did not oppose appeals if they thought that there was a danger of the legal issues being looked at, but they somehow failed to pick up that Damian had legal training.

  • There was then a very protracted period were both sides made submissions and counter submissions to the Tribunal. The Chief Adjudicator was originally in charge of the appeal, but she stepped down because the Merseyflow side alleged that before the bridge opened she had supported the signage that was to be used. It was over seven months before a decision was made. Given that the whole operation is illegal, this protracted process only serves the interests of the establishment.

  • It was not till 11th March 2019 that the Tribunal issued a Statement on their eventual decision They said that "The appeals were allowed due to procedural improprieties.." In other words despite the changes made by Halton Council and Merseyflow following the test case a year earlier - the tolls were still not enforceable - AND NEVER HAVE BEEN.
    The Adjudicator's decision of 11th March 2019.

  • Halton Council immediately issued a statement saying that they would ignore the decision - "It's business as usual at the Mersey Gateway" statement by the Council.

  • The day following the decision, Scrap Mersey Tolls wrote to the councillors asking them to suspend recovery action our letter.

  • Their reply was almost identical to their press statement "The Council is aware of the Traffic Penalty Tribunal adjudicator’s decision...The decision is currently being reviewed by the Council... It's business as usual..."

  • We replied "...The main part of your reply just reiterates what was in the statement that the Council made yesterday. A statement that we were of course aware of as our letter included a link to it. As was said in our letter to the councillors the claim in the statement that the Adjudicator's decision does not affect other cases is nonsense.
    Our group is of course fundamentally opposed to tolling but the decision not to have toll booths and instead to use (in my view illegally) the Road User Charge provisions made a bad situation far worse. You and others at the Council will not see the heart rending messages that I get, mainly from people who were not aware of our group and our advice until they fell into the clutches of the "debt" enforcement officers.
    You and the councillors will be getting some of the flak and have at least some idea of the monster that the Council brought into being. Yet whenever I visit the Mersey Gateway site what do I see but a picture of a smiling Councillor Polhill with the Queen who the Council somehow persuaded to come and give official approval to this terrible scheme. Superimposed on that image is the Merseyflow message "to pay your toll...".
    Despite what the Council are saying in public we would hope that behind the scenes the Council are trying to resolve this situation. And by resolving it I do not mean the Council wasting more money on lawyers. I mean doing something to end the tolls or a least to end the penalty system. As you will know I believe that the bridge was built in the wrong place. Now that it is there it could be an asset to Halton but it will only be a liability for Halton's image and businesses while you have tolls on it."
  • Anyway, the Crossing Board applied for a review of the 11th March decision. In effect they asked for leave to appeal. The Tribunal took a while to reply. It was not till the 17th May that they gave their answer - they turned down the request. TPT statement of 17th May 2019.
    The full decision dated 15th May 2019.

  • A spokeswoman for Halton council came out with the usual nonsense "..In this respect following a review by Mersey Gateway Crossings Board, the grounds of appeal relied on in this particular case are no longer available."

  • We issued our own statement- "Scrap Mersey Tolls did not fear any review of the TPT decision as we believed that there was an unshakable case that the penalties are not enforcible. But now there is not to be a review, it highlights that Halton Council and its allies are ignoring the fact that the penalties are not enforceable. Merseyflow continue to go on the rampage persecuting drivers for thousands of pounds in penalties that the Council know are not enforceable. This is causing increasing aggravation with people being frightened by demands, court documents, 'final notices' and visits from enforcement officers. We have been inundated with people asking for advice...
    "The scandal of the enforcement may run deeper as we believe that those involved have ignored the rules that apply to the use of the Traffic Enforcement Centre at Northampton County Court. We have raised our concerns with the court. They have not only ignored our concerns, they have in the last week actually made the situation even worse by starting to refuse 'out of time' applications, even though people have given valid reasons. All those involved are behaving as if the Mersey Gateway was a Mafia enterprise protected by the umbrella of the court.
    "We have detailed our concerns to various people including the chair of the Justice Committee but were told that they could not get involved. We have even written to the Justice Secretary, who so far has not replied. Given what seems to be a total disregard for the law and the indifference of politicians to the situation, we will be sharing our concerns about the TEC with the wider public in the near future. Whatever comes of that, what will it take for someone to rein in Merseyflow, and scrap both the illegal penalty system and the tolls?"
  • This still does not yet mean that you need not pay the tolls or that if they chase you for payment of tolls and penalties that you can ignore them. There is still a risk that either the Tribunal changes its mind at some point or that the Decision is overruled by another court (though it seems most unlikely that the Council / Crossing Board / Merseyflow will want to go to court as it will make it more difficult to hide the truth.

  • On 13th July another statement was issued by the Crossings Board saying that the Council were "under no legal obligation to repay any toll or penalty paid on failing to pay a toll. Consequently, Halton Council will not be repaying any toll or penalty paid on failing to pay a toll."

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