The US Embassy in London is one of a very few missions still refusing to pay the London Congestion Zone Charge. With a fleet of nearly 100 cars, it is the biggest offender in the last six months. The delinquent fees, discounting any fine ordinary people have to pay for late payment, are now running at the rate of $1million a year. Factoring in the fines could make that $7 million a year.
London’s congestion charge has been a great success. It operates during the working week from 7am to 6.30pm and any non-exempt vehicle has to pay £8 (@$14.50) a day to use any road in the area. The operating profits help pay for improvements to the transport system. The result of the charge has been that London is the only capital city where road vehicle speeds have increased – this help the environment as there is less fuel used in stop/starting and low speed running. Exempt vehicles include motorcycles and hybrids and all-electric cars.
The Americans claim diplomatic immunity as if it were a parking fine, which all diplomats are exempt from in the UK. The position of the Mayor of London is that the charge is a road fee, like bridge or turnpike tolls that British diplomats pay on US roads.
What makes the position of the US even more invideous is the atitude it has to parking in New York for diplomats to the UN. Bloomberg had a war on diplomats from the UN parking illegally and claiming diplomatic immunity to avoid fines (which, like it or not, they are actually entitled to do under the Vienna Conventions) He got the State Department to step in and they set in place special regulations. Under those, a diplomat can not only be fined, their diplomatic plates can be withdrawn (not allowed by the Conventions) and their car towed.
This high-handed enforcement of parking fines is even more galling in the light of the London situation as the stated purpose in the introduction is:
This diplomatic parking program has been designed to encourage compliance by Permanent Missions to the United Nations and the United Nations Secretariat, as well as their personnel, with New York State and City of New York parking laws, rules and regulations and thereby help to relieve congestion in the City of New York,
