Saw yet another TV news item recently about a London Borough (Westminster?, Kensington?) which is cracking down on gas guzzling 4x4's by tripling the parking permit costs for such vehicles. The reporter was shown walking past a row of parked cars with what I presume was a council representative who explained (IIRC) that petrol fuelled cars with engines above..............................
............................. wait for it................................
1.4l .........
yes
1.4 LITRES
would all be subject to the new levy. Set me thinking about just how many 1.5l gas guzzling petrol engined 4x4's there are out there. Can anyone shed any light?
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The proposal (which can be found at www.richmond.gov.uk/parking_chrages_consultation1....f ) is going to change the current charge as follows:
Band A (<=100 g/km), eg Honda Insight, Smart diesel: no charge
Band B (101-120), eg Toyota Prius, Citroen C2 diesel: 50% reduction
Band C (121-150), eg Fiat Panda 1.2, VW Golf 1.9TDI : 10% reduction
Band D (151-165), eg Peugot 307 1.4, VW Passat estate 1.9TDI: 10% increase
Band E (166-185), eg Ford Mondeo 1.8, Mazda5 2.0TD: 30% increase
Band F (186-225), eg Toyota RAV4 2.0, Land Rover Freelander diesel: 50% increase
Band G (> 225), eg Jaguar X-Type 2.0, BMW X5 4.8: 200% increase
The band G charge will apply to all 2001- vehicles with >225g/km emissions, even those registered before band G was created.
For pre-2001 cars:
3000cc: 200% increase
So it's true that if you've got a newish 1.4-litre car, you'll probably be in band D and get a 10% increase.
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And, just to re-emphasise, this is nothing to do with "4x4"s specifically, despite what the media try to make you believe. If you can design a band A 4x4, you can have a free parking permit. See if you can get your hands on a Toyota RAV4EV.
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Smart diesel? A car that's not openly available in the UK. Who writes these things? Are the thousands of other non UK cars also listed?
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No doubt they'll vote to increase there expense accounts accordingly!!
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we're going to end up like the Italians of old aren't we...........the whole family crammed into a Fiat 500 equivalent
What's that going to do to the accident stats?
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Lambeth where I live is proposing doubling the parking permit charge for average vehicles and tapering down the charge down to the existing price for something I think about 120g...although plans not firmed up yet. Big emitters may be paying about £500 apparently.
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It's just another excuse to raise more taxes to pay for civil servants pensions.
If they can throw in a bit of guilt, for you daring to drive your car, all the better.
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On the plus side, people being people, this will hit the second hand price of larger engined cars to an extent far greater than the extra few hundred a year in parking charges. So those who, like me, prefer a bigger engine, will get even more of a bargain on our 3 and 4 litre supercharged vehicles when we buy them.
Resale later? Who cares - enjoy them while they're still legal.
Ta!
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In addition, Ken Livingstone, London's mayor, has announced plans to charge owners of cars in Band G ? those with carbon dioxide emissions above 225g per kilometre ? £25 a day to drive in the capital's congestion zone.
More details about Richmond & 4 other London authorities increasing the cost of parking permits
tinyurl.com/27th5k
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Roger
I read frequently, but only post when I have something useful to say.
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Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
I am getting more and more frustrated by these politicos jumping on the green band wagon without applying joined up thinking !!!!!!!!!!
It really does need a more intelligent approach rather less of a NIMBY attitude.
If a London Resident runs, for instance, a 7 year old TD5 Disco there is logic in offering incentives to encourage them to buy something more eco friendly WHEN and IF they replace it. I.e. NOT to penalise them for their current vehicle, rather to penalise them WHEN and IF they replace their current vehicle with something similar.
This because it simply does not make any sense in global terms to encourage them to buy a new vehicle, yet alone a hybrid, immediately because to offset the embedded carbon in say a new 1.6 diesel, yet alone a hybrid, would take many years and well over 100k miles, much better to run the Disco into the ground, this would even be the case if it were a gas guzzling V8 Range Rover, X5 etc.
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Its not anything to do with being green. It's just a tax grab, pure and simple.
None of these measures will be revenue neutral.
And anyone who believes anyone who says that the extra money will be ploughed back in to public transport needs their head examined.
Wake up everyone and smell the coffee.....
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I too am getting increasingly weary of the introduction of ever more vindictive forms of taxation, on the rather unconvincing pretext of saving the environment. This example, which as far as I can see tries to skew the figures by quoting as examples vehicles not acually available on sale in this country, is a particularly egregious one.
I don't think anyone (barring nutters, the pathologically selfish or those with vested interests of one sort or another) could reasonably argue against the fact that doing things in a way that causes less pollution, and slows the rate at which finite resources are used up (thus letting us enjoy the benefit of those resources for longer), is generally a Good Thing.
However, using this as a handy excuse for yet more governmental pickpocketing will be likely to have the following effects, which are easy to perceive unless you are blinded by £ signs:
1) People will view future, more genuine attempts (yes, I live in hope) to achieve the aforementioned Good Thing with extreme cynicism.
2) Human nature being what it is, there will be those who will go out and buy large 4x4s with poor fuel consumption just to stick two fingers up at the whole thing.
3) Any attempt at sensible discussion of the subject (you know, stuff like "Should we maybe improve public transport first and see if that does the trick?") will invariably be hijacked by the "Climate Change Is Cobblers" brigade on the one hand and the "Humans And Their Cars Are The Root Of All Evil And Everything Bad That Happens On The Planet Is Their Fault" school of thought on the other, and will degenerate into another bowel-shatteringly tedious bout of shrieking, hair-pulling and name-calling which will achieve nothing.
4) Any extra money raised will either be swallowed up in admin costs or squandered in some other way, so no good will come of it in any event.
Heigh ho...
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