An Erith crane manager is “fed up and disappointed” with the Dartford Crossing toll system that he feels is letting his company down.

David Langstead, 64, of Craydene Road, claims that in the last two months, one motorbike and four of his company’s cranes and lorries have been wrongfully fined by the crossing operator Dart Charge.

Mr Langstead believes that as his company has a registered account with Dart Charge, drivers should not be charged for individual trips across the crossing on top of this.

The City Lifting depot manager said: “I have been working here for 10 years and it’s getting worse.

“Why are we being fined for being registered?

“It’s a mess. I have nothing against the crossing but that tunnel is an absolute farce.

“We had a crane over there for £6 and the next day there’s another fine for the same crane coming north for £7.

“The Dart Charge needs to addressed big time.”

Latest figures show more than 3.3m penalty notices (PCNs) have been issued by Dart Charge since November 2014.

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3.3m penalty notices (PCNs) have been issued by Dart Charge since November 2014

In response to a parliamentary question on PCNs the government revealed that 3,392,215 tickets were issued for non-payment at the Crossing but 86,195 PCNs were cancelled following representation or appeal.

This means that about three tickets in 100 issued have been revoked.

A further 354,201 PCNs were cancelled for other reasons, including payment errors made by customers and other “early system issues” from Dart Charge - all of which have “since been addressed”, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary for the Department for Transport (DfT) Andrew Jones wrote on April 18.

The question was put to the DfT by Dartford MP Gareth Johnson on April 8.

Dart Charge, which is managed by Highways England, issues a warning letter to the registered keeper of a vehicle that doesn’t pay the toll and an extra 14 days to pay their original road user charge for use of the crossing without penalty.

In total 1,490,319 PCNs were cancelled due to drivers paying the outstanding road user charges following receipt of a warning letter.

Mr Langstead has told News Shopper that he will not be paying the fines which he feels have been wrongly sent.

A Highways England spokesman said: “The motorbike was incorrectly charged and will be cancelled.

“The other PCNs are genuine errors on the company's part but the PCNs will be cancelled on this occasion.

“This is not something that is an automatic right.

"It is very important drivers keep their vehicle details up to date."

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