"Green Insanity"
Just been looking at the TFL website about the new Low Emission Zone which starts officially on Monday. Is Livingstone clinically insane or what? This measure will destroy thousands of small businesses throughout Greater London who rely on their old "white vans" for transport. Someone on the news this morning was estimating a cost of some £4000 to make vehicles compliant with the new regulations - most of the vans in use are not worth £4000 and if the businesses concerned could afford a new van, no doubt they would already have one. Watch and wait while every single thing we buy in London, whether a service or a product, becomes significantly more expensive as companies have to add on the extraordinary cost of this new charge (or completely renew their transport fleet). It also includes fire engines????? and other public service vehicles. This is the most appalling example of gesture politics we have yet seen. Even if I thought Ken Livingstone was the best thing since sliced bread and I agreed with every other single thing he did, I would still vote against him for this piece of vicious anti-motorist nonsense. The man must be stopped.I must also admit a personal stake here. I have an Iveco van which I use for transporting my dogs to and from shows and races. More importantly it is large enough (which my car is not) to contain my disabled wife's electric buggy. If we want to go for a walk in the country, we run the buggy up the ramps into the van, load up the dogs and we are off for the day. From October 2010, we will be unable to use the van without incurring a £100 per day charge. We may even be liable for such a charge on a continuing daily basis as it is permanently parked within the LEZ. We cannot afford to modify the van as it is not worth £4000 and we certainly couldn't afford a newer model which satisfies the conditions. So, from 2010, Ken has effectively made us more or less housebound. Nice one Ken - just wait till May!
Mick Brent ● 6386d0 Comments