Sample Appeal Wording

Here is some sample wording to use - just choose the bits that apply to your case.

Read the whole page before you start your appeal!

Please remember that TT2 will need to see as much evidence as you are able to provide and also will check your appeal against your account transaction history.

So if for example you claim your auto-top up was set up and now isn't they will be able to see the transactions on your old account and not on your new account or you will be able to provide evidence that they were.

We recommend you write as much as you can but if you are restricted by the wording limit, write that you have more evidence to submit and ask them to provide you with an email address to send it to ready for when they review your appeal. You could also call them and ask them where to send the supplementary information.

When you appeal on line using their appeals page on the TT2 website your enforcement action is frozen until they review your appeal and respond to you, when the clock starts again / is reset depending on where you are in the process.

You may get another letter after you have submitted your appeal, this will already have been printed and posted before you got chance to submit your appeal and will be the next step up from where you are. Mostly it will say "Final Demand" if you have appealed as soon as you got the first letter (which is the one reducing to £30 + toll within 14 days)

If you pay the UTCN before you have received the response to your appeal, it cancels your appeal and marks the case closed. So you need to be certain of two things: have you got an email receipt from them to say that they have received your appeal? AND have you had a reply from them yet to uphold or decline your appeal.

It's only when you have the result of your initial appeal that you should consider either paying, or appealing again.

We recommend you check the contents of your spam folder to make sure you don't miss a reply they send to your email address. Some appeals seem to come to email, some seem to come by post.

If you haven't heard from them after 10 working days (or whatever the timescale was shown on the appeal receipt email in case it is different) you could call them or contact them to find out where the appeal response is.

TT2 describe their appeals process on their website. There is still no independent appeals process (as at 30th July 2022) and the three appeal stages are all handled by TT2 internally. It is up to you to decide if you have enough evidence to continue to appeal or not. Many people do not submit evidence or explain their situation properly. Cast iron items are things like you were in credit at the time the UTCN was issued, or your car was stolen and you are able to provide a Police / Insurance claim number and statement.

Forgot to pay for a couple of weeks to be honest is a reason that will get rejected, we advise that you engage early with the process whatever the reason and don't simply ignore it.

We strongly recommend that if your appeal is because of a TT2 system or a process error and your UTCN should not have been issued, that you email a complaint as well to complaints@northeastca.gov.uk expressing your dissatisfaction with the standard of service you have received from TT2 -- BUT ONLY after you have completed the three stages of the appeals process. Give the Tunnel the opportunity to resolve it first for you, phone them if needed.

Check your reason - look at the wording for the reason number - add any additional details unique to you.

You may have more than one of the reasons, if so add them into your appeal.

1. Pre-paid account, no email or notification telling you your balance was low. [Have you got it set up?]
2. Pre-paid account issues.
3. Pre-paid account. Money on account still got UTCN.
4. New to area/don’t use often - toll booths not in place, did not see the temporary signs clearly enough.
5. Didn’t see signage to pay.
6. Went through during hours of darkness, dusk , dawn or poor visibility weather or heavy traffic and roadworks / temporary signage in place.
7. Paid at PayPoint – showing as paid later than actual paid or not showing at all.
8. Telephone system wouldn’t recognise my regional dialect.
9. Journey before 8/11/21

10. You "forgot"

Appeal wording – Note, you need to be honest here - if it went to court you could be guilty of a false statement.

1. I had pre-paid account, with ‘email when balance low’ set up on it. (Submit a copy of an old low balance email as proof if you can) Your technology failed multiple times and did not email me. As such you are entirely at fault for issuing of this invalid UTCN as your migration did not work as planned.

2. Your app has been offline, your website did not show in chronological order, or was missing journeys, or did not post the journey for several days and did not show a closing balance like a bank statement would which means it was entirely confusing and not possible to keep track of the balance or journeys. {Adapt} [Set yourself up on low balance notifications and set up automatic top-up is our advice!]

3. I have / had adequate funds on my account, you have not allocated them correctly to the journey.

4. I used the Tunnels but your signage was totally inadequate. The signs are small, with the same colours as lots of the ‘roadworks’ signs, poorly placed, and either poorly lit or unlit. As such they are not fit for purpose. In addition I am not local to the area/an infrequent user, so you should do what Dart do..ie an advisory letter for a first offence. I am happy to pay the £1.90 toll fee that I failed to pay due to your woefully inadequate signage.

5. Same as number four

6. Your signage is either poorly lit or unlit and blends in with normal road work signage. As such I fail to see how I can be expected to pay when the signs are unreadable in the dark. I am happy to pay the outstanding £1.90

7. I paid your toll at a PayPoint well within the timescale. The fact that you did not get the money until after the deadline is not my concern as I paid the toll within the timescales allowed. Please take this issue up with your banking providers.

8. I tried to use your telephone system to pay. The process failed multiple times. Your technology is obviously not fit for purpose, and as such I cannot be held liable for your system failings. I am happy to pay the outstanding £1,90 please advise me where you would like me to pay? Please add a recorded message to your automatic phone line with information if it doesn't work more than twice in a row. This is important out of hours when there is no one available to speak to.

9. Red Light offence - please waive charge as per your Business Rules

10. In all honesty, if you simply forgot there are no reasons that they will accept in the majority of cases. You may have some mitigating circumstances such as the death of a close relative which you can attempt to appeal and would in all likelihood be able to provide documentary evidence for, but the reality is in the old days you would have had to remember your "tunnel pound" to pop in the toll booth so this doesn't really come with an appeal reason. As a campaign we made a decision long ago that we could really only support motorists who fall foul of their systems and couldn't really provide any advice to the "forgot" list - TT2 have a list of reasons they may grant an appeal to in these circumstance and those they won't and this list is highly confidential and sensitive. In our experience they decline most appeals for 'forgot'. What we do agree to support you on though is the level of fine and the process for issuing or declining your appeal which at times is seriously lacking in customer experience.

FOR ALL APPEALS - IF AFTER COMPLETING THE THREE STAGE APPEALS PROCESS YOU STILL THINK YOU SHOULD NOT PAY THE UTCN AND IT MATCHES ONE OF THE REASONS WE SHOW ABOVE

NECA is the North East Combined Authority who run the Tunnels.

Their email address is complaints@northeastca.gov.uk Stress again - let the TT2 appeal process run first.

Ideally there should be an independent appeals adjudicator for when the options run out, until that time NECA is the only publicly available route to submit a complaint to about the Tunnel operator. If you just forgot to pay, expect little sympathy in line with most similar charging schemes.

Our opinion is our own - we do not know the detail of your individual case and you should decide yourself if you should pay or appeal your UTCN. We cannot offer legal advice to you. You could discuss your case with your MP or other similar help routes.