Post by stormy on Apr 13, 2007 0:58:21 GMT
“Green taxes” punish rural communities once again
Tuesday, 20 March 2007
Chancellor Gordon Brown has raised road tax for the “most polluting vehicles” to £400, generating criticism from the Countryside Alliance for this unfair and unthinking attack on rural Britain.
4x4s are used throughout the countryside by farmers and land managers as a necessity to travel across often difficult and isolated terrain, and are not considered to be either a luxury or status symbol.
The Countryside Alliance has calculated that while there are approximately 1.6 million SUVs in Great Britain, only about 250,000 are used for all terrain purposes. These include at least (approximate numbers):
60,000 used on working farms
18,000 used in the equine industry
5,000 used by game keepers
2,500 used by rural veterinary surgeons
At present, any vehicle that expels 226 g/km of CO2 is charged £210 road tax per year. A typical rural 4x4, the Landrover Defender 90, expels 266 g/km of CO2 and would suffer from the harshest tax.
The cost is now £400 per vehicle. The net income of a typical British farmer is £21,300, meaning that he or she would lose an average week’s income to be allowed to use their vehicle.
Simon Hart, Chief Executive of the Countryside Alliance said: “62% of urban 4x4 drivers never use their vehicle for off-road driving, while 3 in 10 drivers have chosen their vehicle for aesthetic reasons rather than need. Doubling the road tax for 4x4s without any consideration of their use will further punish the rural community which is already suffering under varying Government legislation.
“The Government has again masked a tax on the British countryside as an environmental tax. All this will achieve is to heap more unfair discrimination and hardship onto already impoverished rural communities.”
source CA
see now that annoys me, its the townies that use them for picking up the kids that i hate. not those who use them, as they should be used for, driving around in mud.
i cant really see my mum getting all the animal food in a bloody green car.
Tuesday, 20 March 2007
Chancellor Gordon Brown has raised road tax for the “most polluting vehicles” to £400, generating criticism from the Countryside Alliance for this unfair and unthinking attack on rural Britain.
4x4s are used throughout the countryside by farmers and land managers as a necessity to travel across often difficult and isolated terrain, and are not considered to be either a luxury or status symbol.
The Countryside Alliance has calculated that while there are approximately 1.6 million SUVs in Great Britain, only about 250,000 are used for all terrain purposes. These include at least (approximate numbers):
60,000 used on working farms
18,000 used in the equine industry
5,000 used by game keepers
2,500 used by rural veterinary surgeons
At present, any vehicle that expels 226 g/km of CO2 is charged £210 road tax per year. A typical rural 4x4, the Landrover Defender 90, expels 266 g/km of CO2 and would suffer from the harshest tax.
The cost is now £400 per vehicle. The net income of a typical British farmer is £21,300, meaning that he or she would lose an average week’s income to be allowed to use their vehicle.
Simon Hart, Chief Executive of the Countryside Alliance said: “62% of urban 4x4 drivers never use their vehicle for off-road driving, while 3 in 10 drivers have chosen their vehicle for aesthetic reasons rather than need. Doubling the road tax for 4x4s without any consideration of their use will further punish the rural community which is already suffering under varying Government legislation.
“The Government has again masked a tax on the British countryside as an environmental tax. All this will achieve is to heap more unfair discrimination and hardship onto already impoverished rural communities.”
source CA
see now that annoys me, its the townies that use them for picking up the kids that i hate. not those who use them, as they should be used for, driving around in mud.
i cant really see my mum getting all the animal food in a bloody green car.
