March 3, 2008

The Congestion Charge has struck something of a raw nerve among the Government's diplomatic guests with a surprising number refusing to pay. Many are also guilty of flouting parking laws, but the cost of unpaid fines is insignificant compared to their Congestion Charge evasion.

The basic premise of their objection is that the charge is a tax and under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations they are exempt. The Embassies that have refused to pay the charge include; France, Germany, Russia and Belgium. The worst offender has been the United States accruing a remarkable £2,087,945 in unpaid bills. This evasion has led to the US ambassador Robert Tuttle being labelled a “Chiselling little crook” by Mayor Livingstone.

The notion of the charge being a tax and not the charge for a service, is at the root of the problem. A spokesperson for the Mayor said "The UK government has ruled that the congestion charge is a charge for a service - namely reduced congestion and traffic - and not a tax. This means that diplomats are not exempt from payment. The worst culprit by far is the American embassy, which has taken a deliberate decision to ignore UK law and refuse to pay the charge. As a result they now owe over £2m, which would have been invested in improving the transport network."

Many embassies objected to the expansion of the zone in February 2007, as their buildings were now situated within it. This is a baffling position, as being residents within the zone they would qualify for a 90% Congestion Charge discount. With their discount they would have to pay a tenth of the cost for entering the zone. Given that they would need to enter the zone regularly, their new discount status would be bound to save them money.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office points out that UK diplomats in Norway and Singapore are not exempt to their respective congestion charges and therefore guests to the UK should not expect to be either. Many other Diplomats have paid the charges without complaint including Sweden, Finland, Israel and Iran. A Mayoral spokesperson said that the offending embassies were “enjoying the benefits of reduced congestion but contributing nothing”. When viewed from this standpoint their tax argument doesn’t hold much water.

This all seems like the behavior of spoilt children to me. Given that the diplomats would be able to claim the cost of the Congestion Charge back as a legitimate business expense, their not paying it is obnoxious and juvenile. Mayor Livingstone has threatened to tow the offending vehicles away and I for one think that he should have been doing this from the start of the year. Seeing a fuming diplomat standing by his clamped car outside the Ivy would give passers by a smile, especially if it was raining.

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