Peer wins C-charge battle

Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Walmsley today won her High Court battle against the "inconsistencies and unfairness" in the London congestion charge appeals system.

Lady Walmsley went to court after an "innocent error" over her car registration number led to costly penalty notices, and today's victory looks likely to result in a re-writing of the regulations.

She had told Mr Justice Stanley Burnton that trying to get sense out of officials running the system was like "talking to a blind and deaf Big Brother".

The battling peer, who runs a PR consultancy from her home in Cheshire, won a ruling from the judge that provisions of the congestion charge scheme were "not clear or easily understandable" and she was entitled to have her case reconsidered.