Posted: 2/26/2009 5:25:19 AM EDT
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I have just received a letter from the DVLA. Apparently it's time to renew the photo on my driving license as they are concerned that I might have aged a bit. Fair enough
However the bastards want me to pay £17.50 for the privilege - to scan a photo and create a bit of plastic! So what does all that other tax that I pay around driving go towards - jaguars for fat and punchy politicians? Why don't they just get the company I work for to pay my wages directly to the treasury and then just give me a tenner back when they feel like it. At least Dick Turpin wore a mask 
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This has just been a topic on another forum, the new drivers licence, here was what the poster wrote.
It stands to reason that your licence needs updating just like your passport as we all change - but I had no idea about the £1000 fine or the £17.50 renewal fee. Thousands of motorists are at risk of being fined up to £1,000 because they are unwittingly driving without a valid licence. They risk prosecution after failing to spot the extremely small print on their photocard licence which says it automatically expires after 10 years and has to be renewed - even though drivers are licensed to drive until the age of 70. Just looked at mine, I have to renew in 2013. 5 years time. PLEASE look at yours now. Jennifer The fiasco has come to light a decade after the first batch of photo licences was issued in July 1998, just as the they start to expire. Motoring organisations blamed the Government for the fiasco and said 'most' drivers believed their licences were for life. A mock-up driving licence from 1998 when the photocards were launched shows the imminent expiry date as item '4b' They said officials had failed to publicise sufficiently the fact that new-style licences - unlike the old paper ones - expire after a set period and have to be renewed. To rub salt into wounds, drivers will have to a pay £17.50 to renew their card - a charge which critics have condemned as a 'stealth tax' and which will earn the Treasury an estimated £437million over 25 years. Official DVLA figures reveal that while 16,136 expired this summer, so far only 11,566 drivers have renewed, leaving 4,570 outstanding. With another 300,000 photocard licences due to expire over the coming year, experts fear the number of invalid licences will soar, putting thousands more drivers in breach of the law and at risk of a fine. At the heart of the confusion is the small print on the tiny credit-card-size photo licence, which is used in conjunction with the paper version. Just below the driver name on the front of the photocard licence is a series of dates and details - each one numbered. Number 4b features a date in tiny writing, but no explicit explanation as to what it means. The date's significance is only explained if the driver turns over the card and reads the key on the back which states that '4b' means 'licence valid to'. Even more confusingly, an adjacent table on the rear of the card sets out how long the driver is registered to hold a licence - that is until his or her 70th birthday. A total of 25million new-style licences have been issued but - motoring experts say - drivers were never sufficiently warned they would expire after 10 years. Motorists who fail to renew their licences in time are allowed to continue driving. But the DVLA says they could be charged with 'failing to surrender their licence', an offence carrying a £1,000 fine. AA president, Edmund King said: 'It is not generally known that photocard licences expire: there appears to be a lack of information that people will have to renew these licences. 'People think they have already paid them for once over and that is it. 'It will come as a surprise to motorists and a shock that they have to pay an extra £17.50.' The AA called on the Government to use the annual £450million from traffic enforcement fines to offset the renewal charge. Before photocard licences were introduced, old-style paper licences were valid until the age of 70. 'Many motorists still believe this to be the case with the new ones.' Driving instructor Tony Carter, of Canterbury , said: 'It's outrageous; everybody thinks their driving licence is for life. 'Why - when you have already paid £50 for your photocard licence - should you pay the Government an extra £17.50 every 10 years? 'It's another stealth tax. Drivers will be very annoyed.' Today the DVLA said the date of expiry was carried on the new-style licences, even though the AA says this is 'not clear'. The Agency was unable to say whether motorists were told the licences would expire when they were first issued. It said it was issuing postal reminders to drivers whose photograph was due to expire, to get the renewal message across. But a spokesman admitted this was the limit of the DVLA's publicity.. Experts say many drivers will slip through the net because DVLA records are inaccurate and many motorists have changed address, making it impossible to trace them. A DVLA spokesman said: 'Previous experience has shown that wide-scale publicity is less effective and can generate enquiries and concerns from those not affected. Instead, DVLA focussed on targeted publicity to ensure that we got the message to the right person at the right time.' The Driving Standards Agency is allowing L-test candidates with out-of-date photocard licences to sit their driving tests as long as they provide a valid passport. This concession will end in January next year, raising the prospect that some L-test candidates will be turned away. The DVLA said no one had so far been charged with failing to surrender a licence. Tony |
A lot of rebels here 
Mine expires next year - I too had not spotted that 10 year thingy. If its just up to an officer in the street and your appearance has not changed, I doubt you would be reported. However, as with local authorities and vehicle excise licence, I fear reporting will be automatic or near as dammit ! Which annoys me greatly - discretion ( a posh word for common sense in deciding when to prosecute ) which is one of the good points of British Policing is being taken away by local authorities. My appearance changes month by month depending on hair length or if I am bearded or clean shaven. Females transform appearance with make up, hair style and hair colour. So, the idea of updating a photo ID / driving licence regularly based on appearance is truely a moot point. 
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I had to change mine to a photo one when my C+E ran out ( due to old age or was it old gittishness...). By the simple ruse of taking it to the Post Office and paying £4 for the express checking service whilst saying that it was for age/medical reasons I persuaded the bloke behind the counter to tick the box that said the fees had been paid and lo, for £4 I got my C+E renewed and a first time photocard - mind you, I wouldn't have bothered if I hadn't had to renew it.
Still, my general comment on the whole idea of £17.50 every ten years is b^st%rds ! |