The biggest shake-up in British motoring for a generation faces being thrown into chaos as a controversial scheme to charge drivers to enter central London could be scuppered by computer problems.
The congestion charging plan, which is also being considered by dozens of other towns and cities across Britain, is a revolutionary attempt to solve the capital's choking traffic problems.
But experts have told The Observer that the scheme could be undermined by flaws in computer databases that will see a quarter of all penalty fines sent to the wrong person or address.
The fault lies with the computer systems of the national car licensing system, which has been labelled 'a shambles' for its inaccurate and out-of-date databases. Congestion charging relies on the databases to fine those who forget or refuse to pay the £5 daily toll. If congestion charging is a failure in the capital it will act as a deterrent to the 43 other towns and cities around the country that are considering a similar scheme.
It will also be a blow to London Mayor Ken Livingstone who has staked his political career on the radical scheme to throw a spy-ring of cameras around the city centre from February in a bid to solve the capital's appaling traffic jams.
The outcome will be watched not just by central Government, which has pledged to cut congestion nationally by 6 per cent by 2010, but by local authorities up and down the country and a host of other cities around the world. But while many transport advisers support Livingstone's plan in principle they are worried that it will descend into chaos because of a stumbling block that is outside the mayor's control.
The penalty system for non-payers involves information being sent from London's congestion charging computers to the Driver Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) in Swansea - which is so riddled with outdated material, equipment and inefficiencies that it is often wildly inaccurate. Experts predict that between a 10th and a quarter of penalty notices will end up going to the wrong address or the wrong person because the DVLA's database is so out of date.
The RAC motoring organisation has branded the national computer records so 'shambolic' that not only are they hampering the fight against car crime but will undermine road tolling schemes.
The Government set up a task force this year to investigate the problem after research found key databases covering details on all Britain's 28 million vehicles, their insurance and MOT records were not connected to each other and that 50 per cent of inquiries elicited inaccurate information. 'We would like to see Livingstone's scheme succeed, but there are going to be real practical problems. If it fails no-one else will attempt it in this country for the next 10 or 20 years,' said RAC traffic manager Kevin Delaney.
He said the system would be judged on 'how it copes with mistakes' - and given that 10 to 25 per cent of parking penalty notices dispatched on the basis of DVLA information did not get to the right person, the signs were not good.
Livingstone and Transport for London have engaged private sector contractors to operate the charging system.
A ring of almost 700 cameras will enforce the congestion charging zone, which stretches from Tower Bridge in the east to Hyde Park in the west. They will read number plates and relay details to a secret computer centre. Planners predict motorists will have a less than one in a thousand chance of evading the cameras.
Motorists can pay by phone using their credit cards, on the internet, at post offices and retail outlets or from machines in car parks. Transport for London has already launched a nationwide campaign and people driving into London will be warned with signs from the M25 inwards that they are approaching the charging zone.
At midnight each day the computers delete the registrations of the cars whose owners have paid and relay the plates of those who have not to another computer and thence to the DVLA.
The DVLA checks its records and forwards the names and addresses of motorists to a third centre in Coventry, which sends out penalty notices. It is this Swansea link' that experts believe could wreck the penalty system.
Derek Turner, managing director of street management for Transport for London, said work had been done to improve the DVLA system and he was confident the charging would work, reducing congestion and improving journey times by up to a third.
