Published: Sunday, 28th June, 2009 11:00am

No penalty for big engines

Comments (0) | Print | Email

PENALTIES for drivers with bigger car engines will not be implemented in the Royal Borough.

During a full council meeting on Tuesday, Cllr Tom Bursnall succeeded in having a motion adopted which reaffirmed the council"s opposition to increasing car-parking rates.

The move comes as a number of other local authorities, including Richmond, introduced differentiating parking prices depending on a vehicle"s CO2 emissions.

Cllr Bursnall said: 'We accept the need to be responsible and try to minimise our impact on the environment, but this is not the way to do it.

'These punitive taxes take no account of the mileage of the vehicles, the number of users per vehicle and the very many valid reasons why residents will sometimes require a vehicle that has a larger engine.'

During the debate many councillors agreed that the borough was a semi-rural environment and those with larger vehicles should not be penalised.

The council resolved to condemn carbon dioxide-related permit charges as a "green smokescreen revenue raising" excercise as well as reaffirming no such schemes would be put in place.