WHITE VAN Man

THE government plans to do away with petrol and diesel vehicles by 2040.

Oban alone has four filling stations so, unless business owners are already thinking about diversifying, folk will be out of work by 2040.

The impact on the petrochemical industry – from Oban’s garage forecourts to whole towns such as Grangemouth – will be catastrophic.

The redundancy of workers will be the biggest issue.

Is the plan to get rid of fossil fuel vehicles more to do with American gas guzzlers, where their drivers would rather step into a car than walk down the road? Has anyone in government thought about the wider issues?

What about our railway stations, especially Oban? If we are 40 years behind with rolling stock now, how are we going to be in 2040? At a standstill.

What about our haulage industry? Oban will starve to death without the food and supplies that come from elsewhere to supply our tourism industry. Thousands of heavy goods vehicles are on the road daily keeping Argyll supplied.

Where are the owners of this industry going to get the money to replace vehicles?

Then there is our merchant fleets, many still using a mixture of fuels, including heavy oils. This whole idea has been badly thought- out.

What about the infrastructure that has to be put in place to charge up the planned new electric vehicles? How many charging units will be needed?

The whole idea beggars belief. It’s another dim-witted plan from a government completely out of touch with the daily mileage people need to cover just to live and work on the west coast of Scotland.

In Oban alone, there will need to be hundreds of charging points. Where on earth are we going to fit all of those?