Martin at Mayorwatch:
Londoners are each owed £5 by those embassies which persist in evading the Congestion Charge despite government and TfL advice that the charge is a legally levied charge and not, as the offenders insist, a tax from which they're exempt. Figures released by the London Assembly Liberal Democrats show that the amount owed by embassies for non-payment of Congestion Charge and Penalty Charge Notices soared by more than 40% during 2009. The figure now exceeds £40 million with the US Embassy the worst offender despite previously accepting their obligations to pay.
It hardly helps that the Mayor has in the past disparaged the charge as a "tax", thereby helping the delinquent embassies make their shoddy case.
And let there be no doubt, this is delinquency. Define the charge any way you like, it is those non-paying embassies' duty as residents of this city to pay up. Their failure to do so is no different from some surly youth dodging his bus fare. It is anti-social behaviour practiced with stunning insolence by privileged people who have no excuse for it. It is high time they stopped squirming, treated London with respect and paid up.
Update, 12:03. With perfect (and entirely unplanned) timing Mayorwatch has become today's addition to the Guardian's list of Top London Bloggers. His separate entry is here.
