Central government must coordinate environmental charges on car ownership as London looks to impose yet another punitive levy on Band G large family cars and people carriers, says The AA Motoring Trust.
All funds raised from these environmental charges must be more widely ring-fenced for specific projects that reduce carbon dioxide and not siphoned off to prop up local government finances.
Following on from Richmonds plan to hit large car owners who have the misfortune to park on the road, the mayors plan adds yet another layer of punitive environmental charges on owners of large family cars and people carriers, says Paul Watters, head of roads and transport policy for The AA Motoring Trust.
The indiscriminate Band G emissions bracket, which is deeply flawed in not incentivising drivers who need large family vehicles to choose lower emission cars in that range, is not an excuse for every local authority to pile on its own environmental charge. Adding hundreds of pounds on to the tax burden of large families and drivers who have good reason to be in these vehicles is quite simply unfair particularly with the expansion of the congestion zone into residential West London.
The cost of enforcing and administering an emissions-based congestion charge with current technology will make it prohibitively expensive, wasting money levied for environmental purposes on bureaucracy.
