Blackwall & Silvertown Tunnel PCN (fine): Even my bank’s fraud team agrees it is a scam

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Category: Private Thoughts

Published: 14 September 2025

On the 4th whilst out all day at a funeral, my wife opened the post and said you have a fine from the greedy mayor (of London). Her words not mine and I will let you guess my opinion of Mr. Khan. It was from the Blackwall & Silvertown Tunnel (London) which was built over a hundred years ago and you would have imagined it has been paid off by now like the Dartford Crossing.

If you use a toll in Europe, Tunisia, Philippines and many other places it is clearly signed and typically there is a toll booth to ensure you pay. Here both points are lacking, especially the second. As normal government entities as well as private firms like supermarket (checkouts) are trying to automate everything to save money. There is of course likely another sinister reason. With no toll booth many people like me do not even notice I am on a toll road/bridge/tunnel or forget to pay the toll within about three or days. Hmm. A great way of generating outrageous fines!

We allegedly used the toll section on a Sunday last month which means we should pay the off-peak fee of £1.50. £4 for peak and you can setup auto pay if you use it a lot which wouldn’t be me since I did not even notice where I was. £1.50 is a fair price and £4 is okish. On the 7th April this year charges were only introduced despite half of the tunnel being opened in Victorian times.

So, you would imagine the fine would have some leniency or be fair. No, nothing is in this greedy country. You would imagine maybe you would get a warning or fine you 10x only. £180, or £90 if you pay within 14 days. 60x is the charge for this or 120x for the £180. The price goes up to £270 if you do not pay within 28 days.

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diskAshur PRO3 SSD 256-Bit - Top Security PIN Authenticated/Hardware Encrypted High-Capacity External SSDs/HDDs

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Category: Technical Product Reviews

Published: 12 August 2025

Manufacturer: iStorage UK | Model: IS-DAP3-256-SSD-2000-F | Origin: Greenford, England
Designed & Assembled In: UK | Website: www.istorage-uk.com | RRP: from £288 (HDD less)

Simplicity	Value	Documentation
5/5	3.5/5	5/5
Functionality	Performance	Overall
5/5	5/5	94%

What Is It In Under 20 Words?
An external USB SSD/HDD drive with inbuilt encryption & authentication to protect data stored on it.

What Does This Solve?
Unlike USB sticks, secure or not this option offers far greater storage, and you could argue this is for more long-term storage since SSDs/HDDs tend to last longer than a USB stick.

These could be used for a sole backup, part of the 3-2-1 rule which is explained below or for long term archiving when access is seldomly needed.

Maintain three copies of your data. Two on-site, i.e. an external hardware encrypted drive like this, and a Network Attached Storage (could be hacked or encrypted by ransomware). Lastly, one off site copy which could be cloud or a hardware encrypted USB or external drive like this.

For some folk off-site cloud sync or SaaS backups like Dropbox, OneDrive or Google Drive is not an option. Either because they do not allow cloud data storage or their clients insist against it. Take a photographer, one I know personally who digitally photographs high value art for wealthy collections (museums or trust collections) or UHNWI. The photos are stored and shared somehow and, are needed for catalogues & insurance purposes.

Criminals or current/ex wife’s (or husbands) maybe interested in such photos since they tell them perhaps where the artwork is stored and its value. Some of these folk or entities maybe concerned on cyber security & privacy, and ask for storage not to be cloud based. This applies to the laptop/desktop and the backup method. Being such photos could be 10-100MB each an USB stick will not cut it and a 2-16TB external encrypted drive would definitely cut it.

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Buying a property in 2025 is setting yourself up for failure and seems like a suicide mission to me!

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Category: Private Thoughts

Published: 12 August 2025

Eight plus years ago I bought my first tiny two bed flat in the suburbs of London and at the time was not married nor had a baby. Fast forward to 2022 and 2024 and both points have changed so in the end of 2024 I listed the flat and struggled to “find a buyer” till the middle of February 2025. The price was reduced in 2025 January, and a second agent was added though agent one in the end brought two buyers and agent two brought one buyer too late.

Being last year was a very expensive year (i.e. a baby arriving in not standard circumstances) savings were low and the plan was/is to use the equity to fund a deposit, legal fees, stamp duty, moving costs and more.

In the end I accepted the lowest offer since the man was chain free, single and I thought it would go smoothly. How wrong this turned out to be!

Just before getting the offers in, we hunted for a place to buy just past the boundaries of London for the reasons of price, congestion and to be in a greener area. We agreed to buy a place for £465,000. This price is seriously cheap for a small three-bedroom house near London and a similar place near where we live now would be more like £600,000 or more.

Remember in 2025 the economy is poor, the jobs market is even worse and with stamp duty changes getting on the property ladder is harder than ever before. The stamp duty threshold used to be £425,000 and now it is £300,000. For a first-time buyer the stamp duty on a place valued at £350,000 is £2,500 and if you are not a first-time buyer it is £7,500.

Let’s look at the costs to buy/sell and later I will cover the monthly costs post purchase.

1. £60 photography fee to estate agent number two
2. £1099 mortgage & survey fee to lender
3. £67.20 additional search fee to Thames Water
4. £599 survey fee for purchase
5. £360 to freeholder for filling out a LPE1 form
6. £2,716.80 purchase legal fees inc. search pack
7. £2,208.00 selling legal fees
8. £13,2500 stamp duty tax on £465,000 purchase

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