Diesel drivers ‘betrayed’ as scrappage scheme axed

THERESA MAY has been accused of betraying diesel drivers by abandoning plans for a nationwide scrappage scheme for “dirty” cars.

Campaigners have accused the Government of punishing motorists who bought the cars in good faith, having been told they were tackling CO2 emissions by the last Labour government. Greenpeace called the announcement a “tyre-burning U-turn”.

The car industry had been lobbying the Government to launch a diesel scrappage scheme to allow owners of older, more polluting vehicles to trade them in for newer, cleaner models.

A document from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said it is not proposing to take forward a national scrappage scheme. Michael Gove’s department concluded the scheme would be “difficult to deliver, potentially open to abuse and could disrupt the existing car market”.

Instead, it said local authorities could bid for funding from a Clean Air Fund to set up their own schemes.

“Not having a scrappage scheme is a betrayal of those people who bought diesel cars in good faith, thinking they were cutting CO2 emissions and saving the planet,” an AA spokesman said.

Last April, the Prime Minister pledged to protect diesel drivers. Mrs May accepted that past governments had encouraged people to buy them.

Morten Thaysen of Greenpeace said that a scrappage scheme “would have been a good opportunity to take polluting cars off our roads while helping drivers who bought dirty diesels on a false prospectus”.

Sales of diesel cars fell 24.9 per cent over the past year, said the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.