Clean air zone charging affect 2 main groups of motoroists, businesses/haulage and lower middle-class private vehicles.
In the first group you have businesses already reluctant to set up in Wales as the M4 is so congested/transport links so poor, this would just add extra cost to their ability to operate here.
In the second group, clean air charging only really affects 1 subset of the population, being those that can afford to run a car but can’t afford to upgrade to a Euro6 compliant vehicle. These people can then be broken down into 2 smaller groups – those that need to use the M4 and/or A470 as part of their every day lives, or British-based tourists who have to use these roads in order to visit Wales.
I think I’m right in saying that clean air charging for a major trunk road is unprecedented in the UK?
This is such a sideshow. Currently the m4 in Newport and the bypass in Pontypridd are designated clean air zones and this bill is about legislating for that. It would allow for charging but govt do not plan to and are not asking to.
But the Welsh Conservatives are asking to vote to say govt will never do congestion charging anywhere. It’s pointless and why should any government tie itself to promising that forever?
I can see why they are doing it. If this is for harmful gases then the money is probably better spent giving incentives to polluters to move to electric vehicles and not increasing the cost of driving on those who cannot afford the burden and use these roads to commute.
But what your begging for with doing this is funnelling traffic off the A470 and through the roads that run alongside it. At the moment the 50mph is a pain but doesn’t cost anything. If it costs money to use the A470 then you can bet the traffic in the streets around it will get worse pumping gases out even closer to peoples houses which is just stupid.
I just wish this government would stop with the constant stick approach and give more carrots. Fining drivers who can’t afford new cars and need one to commute to work is only bad, the better thing to do is give real incentives for them to purchase a vehicle with less emissions.
3 comments
Absolutely bonkers idea, completely mental.
Clean air zone charging affect 2 main groups of motoroists, businesses/haulage and lower middle-class private vehicles.
In the first group you have businesses already reluctant to set up in Wales as the M4 is so congested/transport links so poor, this would just add extra cost to their ability to operate here.
In the second group, clean air charging only really affects 1 subset of the population, being those that can afford to run a car but can’t afford to upgrade to a Euro6 compliant vehicle. These people can then be broken down into 2 smaller groups – those that need to use the M4 and/or A470 as part of their every day lives, or British-based tourists who have to use these roads in order to visit Wales.
I think I’m right in saying that clean air charging for a major trunk road is unprecedented in the UK?
This is such a sideshow. Currently the m4 in Newport and the bypass in Pontypridd are designated clean air zones and this bill is about legislating for that. It would allow for charging but govt do not plan to and are not asking to.
But the Welsh Conservatives are asking to vote to say govt will never do congestion charging anywhere. It’s pointless and why should any government tie itself to promising that forever?
I can see why they are doing it. If this is for harmful gases then the money is probably better spent giving incentives to polluters to move to electric vehicles and not increasing the cost of driving on those who cannot afford the burden and use these roads to commute.
But what your begging for with doing this is funnelling traffic off the A470 and through the roads that run alongside it. At the moment the 50mph is a pain but doesn’t cost anything. If it costs money to use the A470 then you can bet the traffic in the streets around it will get worse pumping gases out even closer to peoples houses which is just stupid.
I just wish this government would stop with the constant stick approach and give more carrots. Fining drivers who can’t afford new cars and need one to commute to work is only bad, the better thing to do is give real incentives for them to purchase a vehicle with less emissions.