Dart Charge: Drivers struggling to pay for Dartford Crossing

Motorists crossing the Thames betwixt Kent and Essex are inactive struggling to wage for their journeys pursuing the instauration of a caller system.

Customers accidental they cannot entree the website oregon person been placed successful an online queue to wage their charge.

Those who utilized the crossing implicit the play had been told to wage by Tuesday oregon look a fine.

However, National Highways said it would beryllium extending its outgo deadline but did not specify until when.

A spokesperson said: "The Dart Charge interaction centre and website is presently experiencing exceptionally precocious request aft the strategy improvements made implicit the weekend."

"To assistance easiness unit we person placed radical successful a queue, which volition mean a abbreviated hold successful accessing the website and our telephone centre advisors," they added.

The connection thanked motorists for their patience arsenic they waited to pay.

One operator told the BBC helium crossed the span for the archetypal clip connected Saturday.

He said helium had waited successful an online queue for 3 hours connected Sunday evening and was inactive incapable to process the payment.

A station connected Dart Charge's Twitter leafage said its website was "currently astatine capacity" and truthful radical were struggling to entree it, arsenic good arsenic telephone centre advisors.

The station has truthful acold received much than 200 responses from customers, with galore calling for the charges to beryllium waived.

On 17 July, an email to those registered for automatic payments astatine the Dartford Crossing said the caller strategy would travel into unit connected Friday 28 July.

It instructed motorists that they needed to update their outgo paper from 28 July oregon they could beryllium liable for a non-payment good if they made the crossing.

Helen Watkinson, caput of roadworthy idiosyncratic charging astatine National Highways, told BBC Radio Kent the day from which customers could validate their paper details had changed since the emails went retired to customers.