[Brydo]

Article

Motoring group wants English cities and the Government to each put £500 million into getting polluting cars off the road
The AA is calling for a £1 billion diesel scrappage scheme funded by English cities and central Government.

Cities in England – mayors from 14 of which have already called for a £1.5 billion ‘clean air fund’ – are planning to raise a total of £52 million this year from bus lane fines, which adds up to £520 million over 10 years. If this were to be combined with another £500 million from the Government, it would fund a £1 billion diesel scrappage scheme.

• Diesel ban: the state of play and what next for diesel cars in the UK?

The AA says the first priority of such a scheme should be to ensure low-income drivers – such as families, the elderly and the disabled – living in urban areas are not priced off the road by low-emission zones and congestion charging schemes.

Scrappage grants would allow these residents to upgrade their old dirty diesel cars to newer Euro 6 compliant models. This money could then be recouped through interest-free loans or supplements on resident parking permit charges, allowing the money to be recycled back into funding EVs.

Another point the AA makes is that the push towards electrification needs to be targeted at the worst polluters, such as buses, taxis and vans, as well as higher mileage car drivers in cities, such as community nurses and visiting doctors. When a business benefits from this, the money should again be tied into a loan.

With many cities holding off on extending their clean air charges to private cars, the AA says its proposals would allow them to gauge the impact of targeting the vehicles that create the most pollution while they wait. This move would prevent low-income car owners from being put in the firing line in the first place.

Edmund King, president of the AA, commented: “This is a radical clean air plan that ticks so many of the boxes – protecting vulnerable low-income car owners, giving the city mayors most of the cleaner vehicle money they want and giving a surge of power to the electrification of city vehicles.

“Half the money, coming from bus lane fines, is ready and waiting in council coffers. Rather than waiting two years for clean air restrictions to come into force, councils can make a start virtually tomorrow. It also meets the requirements for use of traffic fines income on transport projects.

“And, if the councils complain that they need the bus lane income to fill in potholes and other roads projects, the ones in England already plan to make a surplus of £921 million from their parking charges.”

Topic

[ChrisK]

Nice talk but since when have local or national government ever given a toss for low income or disabled folk other than providing the minimum within the law.

Isn’t going to happen because why would any local or national government cut off a lucrative gravy train willingly.

[BionicRusty]

Perhaps the Media should pay for cajoling us all into diesel ~15 years ago!

When all said and done though, re the above article, who will really pay? The consumer methinks. I don’t care what any stats say, diesel is more economical and this is from my own experience with my personal and repetitive trips with the same driving style over 100’s of miles (not one trip)

Mercedes E350cdi coupe = 40mpg (actually used to hit Merc’s stats)

BMW X1 18d = 52mpg

Vauxhall Zafira Tourer 1.4T petrol = 34 mpg (big car but same kerb weight as X1)

Mercedes GLA 1.6 petrol = 35 mpg.

 

I have to regularly travel 60 miles to hospital and have achieved 66mpg in the X1 using ‘eco mode’ of the gearbox.

In the GLA, same gearbox mode, same trip, I struggle to hit 40mpg.

Also, I’ve read many times that newer diesels, even those ~10-15 years old so considering the article above, are just as or even cleaner that petrol.

When I used to have my E350 BlueEfficiency mot’d, it was stated a number of times that “there’s nothing coming out of her. It’s like she’s not running”.

We’ll all have an opinion on this but for now, I ♥️ Diesel.

 

? I will be remembered for nothing but had great fun doing it ?

[Author]

Replies