LONDON POLLUTION STORY ADDS WEIGHT TO CASE FOR PLUG-IN
GRANTS
A newspaper report today adds to the government's
embarrassment over its failure to stick to its pre-election promise to include
electric PTWs in the long-running plug-in grants scheme. The scheme provides
incentives to buyers of electric cars and vans but discriminates against e-PTWs
(electric-powered two-wheelers).
It is now 14 months since the government announced it would
extend the scheme to electric bikes but nothing has happened and, as British
Dealer News reported in our May issue, the signs are ominous.
BDN has already pointed out that the market for green
electric bikes has effectively been killed off since the government's
announcement - a development which has particular resonance today as a report
has emerged about dangerous traffic-related air pollution in London.
Boris Johnson has been accused by his successor as London
mayor of suppressing an air pollution report, Analysing Air Pollution Exposure
in London, that showed 433 primary schools were located in areas that exceed EU
limits for nitrogen dioxide pollution.
A spokeswoman for Sadiq Khan said the new mayor planned to
publish the full report. She told The Guardian: “This shocking report reveals a
snapshot of the true impact that our polluted air has on some of London’s most
vulnerable communities. It is difficult to understand why the last mayoralty
decided to cover it up and not fully release it in 2013 – they clearly didn’t
want Londoners to know the dire state of pollution in the capital.
“The mayor is fully committed to cleaning up our air and
protecting Londoners’ health and is shocked to learn that important scientific
evidence like this have been locked and ignored at City Hall.”
BDN is continuing to press the government to stick to its
word, having written to the minister and new mayor of London on the issue. We
have also posted the story on social media and Linked In, where our post has
received support from Jamie Masterman, whose role is consultant powersports
distribution and brand building. Masterman says he has met with his local MP to
protest and to explain that the government's failure to deliver on its promise
of plug-in grants has led him to cancel an order for more than 100 electric
scooters.
