Classic-cars - epetition reply

I received this email from 10 Downing St which may be of interest:

23 April 2008

We received a petition asking:

"We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Reject any proposals to ban or restrict the use of older cars."

Details of Petition:

"Several EU proposals across the years are dangerous to the classic car movement. One that has been under consideration is to ban the use of cars older than 10 years. Similarly, Edinburgh City Council is considering the banning of cars over 15 years old from the town centre. These, and similar, proposals directly threaten the classic car movement, and encourage the manufacture of new cars, with the attendent environmental issues of sourcing raw materials, manufacturing, distriuting and scrapping the spiralling supply of new vehicles."

• Read the petition
• Petitions home page

Read the Government's response

Thank you for taking the time to register your views about classic cars on the Downing Street website.

There is currently no proposal either at EU or domestic level to ban cars over a certain age.

Clearly, vehicle emissions are a concern not just from a local air quality perspective but, increasingly, due to their contribution to climate change. Therefore, the European Commission has proposed setting CO2 targets for car manufacturers, but these would only affect new cars. Also, the targets would be based on averages rather than enforced limits or bans.

There is also no EU or UK policy to provide incentives for scrapping old vehicles. A programme of incentives to phase out the most polluting vehicles was considered as part of the national Air Quality Strategy Review (June 2007). Two scenarios were modelled: the first considered incentives for the scrapping of all cars that were not compliant with the Euro 1 standard, while the second considered Euro 1 standard cars as well as all the pre-Euro cars. This analysis suggested that both scenarios would result in a large net cost to society and represented poor value for money, mainly due to the high cost of useful resources being destroyed (i.e. roadworthy cars being scrapped). This could also involve negative environmental effects, as the petition outlines. As a result, the Air Quality Strategy classified this measure as 'no longer under immediate consideration', which remains true today.

Local authorities are able to develop, implement and manage their own local air quality management schemes, allowing them to focus measures on priorities in their area. The Low Emission Zone (LEZ) operating in London is a prominent example. It currently applies to lorries over 12 tonnes, but will eventually apply to lighter vehicles such as large vans. However, cars, motorcycles and small vans (below 1.205 tonnes in unladen weight) are not affected. For the vehicles that are included, there is an exemption for 'historic vehicles' built before 1st January 1973.