The time period for motorists to pay the Dart Charge following a system update has been extended.

It comes after many drivers have reported difficulties in paying the fee for the Dartford Crossing over the past two days and have been left in a virtual queue on the toll service’s website for upwards of an hour.

A National Highways spokesman said: "We have further extended payment deadlines to ensure everyone has sufficient time to pay the charge.

“Dart Charge account holders have until August 31 to update their card details on the website.

"Non-account holders who use the crossing between July 27 and August 14 have until August 15 to pay the charge.”

When asked about how many people had been trying to access the Dart Charge website National Highways said it did not have those figures.

Last week the agency announced the automatic payment system would not be in place for a few days due to improvements being made.

Drivers holding accounts were reminded they would not be able to pay their toll until Monday afternoon (July 31).

At the time a spokesman for the agency said: “Starting from 00.01am on Friday, July 28, until late on Sunday, July 30, users will not be able to pay for crossings or access their Dart Charge accounts.

“The whole system is down so payments cannot be made via the call centre either. However, our call centre will remain open to field any queries and offer assurance to customers. Everything should be back up and running on Sunday afternoon.

”When the system comes back up Sunday afternoon, customers will be able to pay manually if they need to. We have given account holders until Tuesday, August 1, to sort out payments.”

Yet, as people have struggled to pay over the past few days due to high demand, National Highways has since announced it will be extending this payment deadline while the technical difficulties are sorted.

Read More: Why are you still paying the Dart Charge?

A spokesman added: “The Dart Charge contact centre and website are still experiencing exceptionally high demand after the system updates made over the weekend.

“We are extending the payment period for crossings made since Thursday, July 27, to allow everyone sufficient time to make payment once the system is functioning as normal.

“We thank people for their patience while we work hard to resolve this and will provide further regular updates.

“As we are still working through a number of technical system issues we have not set a new deadline for payments yet.

“Once the system is functioning as normal again, we will communicate a final date giving road users sufficient time to pay for their crossing.”