London Congestion Charge Halloween Chaos as Witches Face £18 Daily Fee
TfL insists broomsticks are exempt, but nobody driving into Zone 1 this October quite believes it
SOHO — A woman dressed as a witch, cycling a broomstick-themed prop through central London on Friday night, was reportedly stopped by a bemused parking attendant who wanted to know whether the item counted as a vehicle for Congestion Charge purposes. It does not, currently. But given what has happened to the Congestion Charge this year, nobody entering Zone 1 after dark would be blamed for double-checking.
From January this year, the daily Congestion Charge rose from £15 to £18, the first increase in five years, applying to anyone driving through the zone between 7am and 6pm on weekdays and midday to 6pm at weekends. Transport for London expects the increase to net an extra £40 million in revenue over the year, according to Freedom of Information figures obtained by an online car retailer, which is either a sensible way to fund public transport or a fairly on-the-nose way to remind Londoners that entering their own city centre now costs more than a small Halloween party’s worth of sweets.
Why the London congestion charge Halloween joke lands
The timing, this year, is unusually cruel. Electric vehicles, which had enjoyed a complete exemption from the charge since 2021, lost that free pass at the end of last December and are now liable for the fee like everybody else, albeit with a discount for drivers signed up to Auto Pay. Zero-emission vehicles are, in other words, now taxed for existing in central London at roughly the same moment the city fills with people dressed as ghosts, ghouls and the undead, none of whom, as far as anyone can tell, have been asked to register for Auto Pay yet.
A London-based comic working the West End circuit this month put the absurdity best: “TfL will happily charge you eighteen quid to drive an electric car into Soho, but a broomstick, a child’s inflatable pumpkin trolley and, technically, a horse and carriage remain completely free. If you want to dodge the Congestion Charge this Halloween, the safest costume is the one with no engine.” The line, delivered near Carnaby Street on the night of the 31st, reportedly got its biggest laugh from a driver who had just received a penalty charge notice.
The London congestion charge Halloween exemptions, explained badly
Under the new Cleaner Vehicle Discount, electric cars registered for Auto Pay now receive a 25 per cent reduction, bringing their daily charge down to £13.50, while electric vans, HGVs and quadricycles qualify for a steeper 50 per cent discount, dropping their cost to £9 a day. Those discounts are scheduled to shrink further from March 2030, tapering to 12.5 per cent and 25 per cent respectively, a slow-motion phase-out that TfL insists reflects the growing number of electric vehicles on the road rather than any desire to squeeze an extra few pounds from drivers who thought they had done the responsible thing by going electric in the first place.
None of the discount tiers, notably, mention broomsticks, bicycles dressed as dragons, or the small pumpkin-shaped wagons some parents now tow behind a pushchair on Halloween night, all of which remain entirely free to enter the zone on the simple technicality of not being a motor vehicle. For one night a year, at least, the least regulated form of transport through central London is also, by some distance, the most seasonally appropriate.
Trick, treat, or £18
Central London remains, by TfL’s own reckoning, one of the most accessible places in the world without a car, served by 71 Underground and railway stations, 700 bus routes and a growing network of cycleways in Zone 1 alone, which is precisely the kind of statistic that comforts nobody stuck in traffic on Shaftesbury Avenue at 6pm on the busiest costume night of the year. For families ferrying children between trick-or-treat routes by car rather than broomstick, the maths has become genuinely uncomfortable, with a five-day commuter now facing roughly £4,500 a year in charges, a rise of £750 on the old rate.
Some drivers have half-seriously proposed dressing their cars as Halloween floats in the hope that novelty value might soften an enforcement camera’s judgement. It will not. The cameras, unlike the average parking attendant on Wardour Street, have no sense of the season whatsoever.
For the fuller breakdown of who pays what, when the discounts taper off, and how the zone boundary is drawn, Latest Story UK has the complete explainer without the fancy dress.
Sources
London Loves Business: Congestion Charge hike to net TfL extra £40m in 2026 and FleetPoint: London’s Congestion Charge is changing in 2026.
This has been British satirical journalism from a city that will fine an electric car eighteen pounds and wave a broomstick straight through, courtesy of the finest London satire this Halloween has to offer. For the American edition of city driving turned horror story, visit Bohiney.com.
Auf Wiedersehen, amigo!
Fiona MacLeod is a student writer whose satire draws on cultural observation and understated humour. Influenced by London’s academic and creative spaces, Fiona’s writing reflects curiosity and thoughtful comedic restraint.
Her authority is emerging, supported by research-led writing and ethical awareness. Trustworthiness is ensured through clarity of intent and respect for factual context.
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