Much ink has been spilled, and continues to be spilled, over Oxford’s Traffic Filters. At 00:00 on 28 September, these took over from the Congestion Charge and are controversial.

Personally, as my default mode of transport is my trusty bicycle, I welcome efforts to cut congestion in Oxford and make public transport the attractive choice: for all those people saying “soon nobody will drive into Oxford” er, yeah, that’s the point!

However.

My mood was not improved upon coming home at the end of a difficult week to find a Penalty Charge Notice:

PCN

What’s wrong with this picture? Well, 27 September was the last day of the old Congestion Charge, and on that day, I still had 22 of my 25 Oxfordshire resident’s permits left:

Remaining permits

… and yet the system didn’t apply them, and I got a penalty. And lest you think I must have made a mistake somewhere, Reddit is awash with people in the same boat.

I’m still a supporter of fewer cars in Oxford but the Council really needs to sack someone for this. Or at least proactively find and cancel all such PCNs without making everyone appeal them individually.