Give drivers diesel scrappage cash... so they can buy a bike

A SCRAPPAGE scheme for diesel cars should give owners money towards a new bicycle or a rail season ticket, a senior Tory MP said yesterday.

As diesel owners face tax hikes and swingeing charges because their vehicles emit dangerous levels of nitrogen oxide, ministers are considering a scheme to give them up to £2,000 towards buying a new car with lower emissions.

But during a Commons debate, Neil Parish, Tory chairman of the environment, food and rural affairs committee, suggested it should present diesel owners with a range of alternatives.

He said: ‘This could include a public transport ticket, a car club membership, a rail season ticket or cleaner transport such as a new bicycle.

‘Therefore when we talk about a new scrappage scheme it may not necessarily be just about changing your car. I could do with a new bicycle to come in from Battersea every morning – it would be ideal.’

He added that bringing in a scrappage scheme for high-polluting diesels – which was previously dismissed as being too expensive – could ‘be a key weapon in the armoury of Government in tackling air pollution’, and that a £500million fund would take nearly 10 per cent of the 5.6million dirtiest diesel cars off the roads.

But he said any scheme should be restricted to diesel vehicles registered before 2005, which emit more dangerous nitrogen oxide than newer models.

Responding to the proposals, transport minister John Hayes said: ‘I note his points and will ensure they will be considered as part of our consultation and part of our work.’

Sales of diesel cars soared after the decision by Gordon Brown in 2001 to tax them less than petrol cars because they emit less of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide – before it was discovered that they emit more toxic nitrogen oxide.

There are 11.7million of them on the roads today.

Ministers have been given until April 24 by the High Court to publish plans for tackling illegal levels of air pollution.

But Labour MP John Spellar said a scrappage scheme was likely to be hugely expensive and it was ‘not a realistic option’ to expect people who live outside London, who mainly travel to work by road, to ditch their diesel cars and get on bikes.