Petition The Dartford crossing scheme will discriminate against UK drivers and should be scrapped

The planned Dartford Crossing charging scheme is discriminatory to UK registered vehicle drivers. Central to the enforcement regime is use of the UK ANPR database to trace and pursue non- paying drivers and the ability to apply fines to them. There is no UK right of access to the vehicle registration databases of any foreign state including EU states. This means that there cannot be a viable enforcement regime for foreign registered vehicle drivers. These include not only the hundreds of thousands of tourist vehicles which will be using the crossing but also the many thousands of EU registered vehicles which are driven by foreigners who are working in the UK. The government should scrap the scheme and opt for a cost free crossing to negate this built in discrimination and inequality. If the Government is not prepared to do this then they should allow a debate in Parliament to consider the question of equality of treatment and the possible need for a judicial review.