Morning:
14°c
C-charge fine for 2012 parade floats
Bo Wilson28.11.08
THE DRIVERS of floats who ferried Britain's Olympic medalists on the London victory parade were all fined for failing to pay the congestion charge.
The 12 lorries were all caught on the C-charge cameras and their drivers told to pay £120 each for not paying the £8 fee.
The parade on 16 October saw thousands of people lining streets between Mansion House and Trafalgar Square to celebrate the British squad's best medal tally for 100 years.
Athletes on the floats included Nicola Cooke, Chris Hoy and Rebecca Adlington.
Organisers KB Events said there had been "an oversight by the parade team" which meant the drivers failed to text their registration details in the usual way of paying the charge.
The company has paid the fines as a "one-off gesture".
The Olympic athletes of Team GB won 47 medals including 19 gold, 13 silver and 15 bronzes to come fourth in the medal table.
Britain's Paralympic athletes came second in their table with 102 medals - 42 gold, 29 silver and 31 bronzes.
Reader views (10)
Idiotic and stupid. Scrapo the congestion charge and there won't be any problems. It's just another tax and by lidting it the economy in Lonodn may improve, after all Manchester voted against it. The congetsion charge was introduced by Livingstone because he didn't ;ike cars or the rich (although I dare say he now has a few bob)Heaven help us if had not liked restaurants or bars.
- Adrian, Paris, France
Nice one Boris
- Robert Turner, United Kingdom
But this misses the point. Instead of going by lorry float, the organisers of the parade should have insisted that everyone travelled by bus or tube.
- Adam, Harrow, UK
Priceless!
- George, London
are the staff at the american embassy still not paying the c charge?
- Malcolm, chingford
Oh Plerr-ese someone have a brain. One hopes when Rebecca Adlington wins her just award on BBC1 in a couple of weeks time she might just have a dig at this problem. It will only grow in volume till 2012 and then the embarassment will hit us all.
- Timbo, London
This has just made my day! I'm sitting at my desk laughing. This has cheered me up immensely. Are they for real? The answer is 'yes'. Unbelievable, but true. Hahaha.
- Sonia Thompson, Leyton, London
oh come on boris and TFL - refund the money - weren't the GLA/TfL the actual clients of the event organisers- stoopid mistake - they shouldn't be paying the charge.
- Jc, SE1
That was silly of them, why did they not have embassy or cloned number plates?
- Paul, London
Can you hear it? It's just a background rumble, but it gets louder by the day. What am I talking about? -The sound of the rest of the World laughing at us!
- Keith Lonsdale, Doncaster
