Getting rid of Gas Guzzling SUVs

Islington has many intelligent, affluent and informed residents. Many of them read about climate change and tipping points everyday in the broadsheet papers. If we were to ask them whether the government should do more about climate change, they would answer with a resounding 'YES'. Yet they still go out and buy these dreadful vehicles. More Londoners choose to buy SUVs than the rest of the country.

We often hear from the Mum that does the school run and takes 5 kids and all their clobber to school each morning. Yes it's very convenient but it's simply not sustainable. Before the vehicles move off the forecourt, an enormous amount of energy has been used to produce the vehicle. The vast majority of the 4x4s that I see on the road only have one person in them.

We have approached local Labour and LibDem parties in Islington and asked them to strongly discourage residents from purchasing of new 4x4s by imposing a punitive annual parking charge on them. Of course, this would not be necessary if the government set the road tax at some reasonable level which they failed to do in the 2006 budget; Drivers to pay [slightly more] for Gas Guzzlers. The kind of person that pays £50,000 for a Landrover isn't going to be deterred by anything less than £1000.

We may be leaning against an open door. Some Labour and LibDem councillors are very sympathetic. A Labour councillor commented that ' not only are they CO2 prolific, they are too big for our little roads and grossly antisocial'.

The IT system used by the council to manage parking permits is already able to administer different charges for different sized vehicles.

There is more to come on this.

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