I’m fuming! Pollution tax will just hit hard-up
A VIRTUALLY unheard of environmental law charity, condescendingly named Client Earth, is behind the government’s decision to force council’s into pollution taxes, or – as we better understand them – congestion taxes by the back door.
Client Earth defeated the government on pollution measures in the high court, therefore the government has to be seen to act in order to reduce pollution.
Pollution or congestion charging will not reduce pollution because people who drive older cars, lorries, buses and taxis will still pay the charge but will become poorer than they already were, and less likely to be able to afford a newer, less polluting vehicle than ever.
A government-funded scrappage scheme would work better and be much fairer.
The government is in fact the main cause of pollution by not investing properly in the road network whilst allowing the country’s population to increase beyond control.
The councils add to the pollution by slowing down or restricting traffic (Salford, Chapel Street) and increasing congestion with bus lanes (East Lancs V1, V2) Oxford Road. In summary, the outcome of this tax grab will mean the same levels of pollution but more money in the hands of the fools who have caused the infrastructure problems in the first place. D Bagnall, Manchester
YET again, diesel drivers get penalised for polluting the atmosphere.
It was the government who told us to buy diesel cars. I can understand if the cars are older than 10 years, but not newer cars.
Nobody mentions the pollution of planes. The airport is felling all the trees for the expansion to 50 million passengers. This means every two minutes a plane is landing or taking off. I work at the airport and some days you can’t breathe because of the fumes. What about the cruise liners? I know people who take six or more cruises a year. Ships going to the Arctic so passengers can see the glaciers melting.
Flight and cruise passengers should be charged £ 20 per person. The money can be reinvested into clean energy. At least the right people get charged and not just the poor who can’t afford to buy a new car every two years. H Stolte, Hazel Grove
Please punish poor parkers
MOST car parking spaces, including at the Trafford Centre, are designed to a set standard (2.4m x 4.8m; with aisles of 6m), and have been for many years. Most garages, even in new houses, are also limited – seemingly by cost and space considerations. If you buy a car bigger than, say, 4.6 metres long, it won’t be easy to park in a standard space, and be more difficult to park in a typical garage. So, who’s to blame ... manufacturers of buyers? Take your pick.
However, common sense has prevailed in our family and our new car’s size is limited to dimensions that we know will fit in the vast majority of spaces in the UK.
If you do need, or prefer, a bigger car then don’t park it illegally, that is, don’t park at places like the Trafford Centre and deny parking for others and compromise their safety.
When the Trafford Centre opened, they towed ‘illegally’ parked cars to a compound. Today, I understand that they do issue warnings. These are obviously, not effective. Note that other places do have sanctions.
The published photographs tell the story (Bad parking that drives you mad..., M.E.N., October 9).
Trafford Centre management consistently lets drivers block pedestrian walkways and worse still, block emergency vehicle routes.
Clearly, they don’t punish these inconsiderate drivers sufficiently – and, as a result they annoy many more of their customers. Terry Dean
Life easier years ago
AS someone now in her 70s I often think back to, what I consider, the advantages then of my younger days.
When I left school at the age of 15 in the early 1960s there was no worry as to whether there was a job for me to walk into, then there were jobs for all.
There was also many interesting pastimes: many youth clubs, night school classes and ballroom dances (many holding dance instruction classes). These were also the times when people could go and see their doctor without an appointment. For quite some time after starting work, I was paid weekly, by cash in an envelope, as many others were then.
These are just a few of the advantages I can reel off from the good old days when life was much simpler and people generally seemed more contented. M Smith, Middleton