Manchester LEZ zone from May

This will mean that we are unable to visit our son and granddaughter ever again, my niece over in Hebden Bridge and cousin in Heald Green either. We cannot afford to replace our 11 year old car or 25 year old 'van, ah well, seeing as we live in Glossop, it will be difficult to escape.
 
oppy said:
This will mean that we are unable to visit our son and granddaughter ever again, my niece over in Hebden Bridge and cousin in Heald Green either. We cannot afford to replace our 11 year old car or 25 year old 'van, ah well, seeing as we live in Glossop, it will be difficult to escape.
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You should've kept that bike Peter!
 
oppy said:
This will mean that we are unable to visit our son and granddaughter ever again, my niece over in Hebden Bridge and cousin in Heald Green either. We cannot afford to replace our 11 year old car or 25 year old 'van, ah well, seeing as we live in Glossop, it will be difficult to escape.
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I think that private cars are exempt.
 
Robmac said:
I don't think they can charge you whilst on private land.

You would have to pay for driving to, driving from and any days in between if you drove out onto the roads in the restricted area.
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Another argument would be why should I pay on the minor roads to the clubhouse when there is a motorway travelling straight over the top of us. I used to run my own transport company and when they started congestion charging in London, customers were soon complaining when I put the rtates up to cover it. All it is doing for commercial traffic is pushing prices up which will then be passed on to their customers. I agree the only way to cut down the emissions is to stop the traffic full stop, then where would we be.
 
Anyone remember when the government encouraged us all to buy diesel cars? They reduced tax and vat, and then when all us mugs bought one we suddenly became another cash cow!
 
TissyD said:
Another argument would be why should I pay on the minor roads to the clubhouse when there is a motorway travelling straight over the top of us. I used to run my own transport company and when they started congestion charging in London, customers were soon complaining when I put the rtates up to cover it. All it is doing for commercial traffic is pushing prices up which will then be passed on to their customers. I agree the only way to cut down the emissions is to stop the traffic full stop, then where would we be.
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I used to run my own pub garden furniture business.

When they brought in the London congestion charge I simply stopped delivering to London. I always hated delivering there anyway. The last straw for me was when I had to deliver to a restaurant. The owner had told us there were no parking restrictions, when I got there it was on a Red Route!

I challenged the owner about this and he said "If I had said we were on a Red Route, you wouldn't have come". I asked him if he was going to pay the fine and he said no. I then drove off without delivering his 12 picnic tables which he needed for that weekend. I got fined and we both lost out.
 
Manchester City Council are now having a 'rethink' due to the amount of protests from business leaders. In other words, nothing will change, you will pay the LEZ charge and there is not a thing you can do about it.
Well, actually there is something they can do about it, that is to relocate......... resulting in loss of rates and local job opportunities.

Who are the winners then?
 
izwozral said:
Manchester City Council are now having a 'rethink' due to the amount of protests from business leaders. In other words, nothing will change, you will pay the LEZ charge and there is not a thing you can do about it.
Well, actually there is something they can do about it, that is to relocate......... resulting in loss of rates and local job opportunities.

Who are the winners then?
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Trouble is though Ral, relocating is only postponing the inevitable. These rates will be everywhere eventually.
 
Very true Rob, which is why I said 'coming to a city near you' earlier, really is a case of we can run but we cannot hide situation innit?

The bar stewards are out to get us, that's for sure. :cautious:
 
Herman said:
"I live on a main road unfortunately outside Greater Manchester and I will be pleased when the diesel lorries and occasional motorhomes thundering past our house will be dissuaded from coming to our town too."

Be prepared to see more HGV trundling past your door Derek if you live outside the LEZ, as business leave Manchester in the droves to relocate outside the LEZ to avoid charges. I can see industrial areas like Trafford Park becoming ghost towns as business relocate. Big show arenas that hold camping and motorhome shows will hold shows in Preston or other nearby large towns. Imagine someone having an already expensive stall in the Christmas market now willing to pay upto an extra £60 a day to bring in fresh stock, they will have a stall at Clitheroe next year.
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Yes that will happen and then the Lezs will happen in those towns more quickly .
Like London the original lez will tighten its charges to cover smaller vehicles. Electric rather than internal combustion is the destination.
The government is now testing lorries with pantographic charging contacts to overhead wires on the nearside lane of motorways, like electric trains, for long haulage.
 
Derekoak said:
The government is now testing lorries with pantographic charging contacts to overhead wires on the nearside lane of motorways, like electric trains, for long haulage.
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The sound of another penny dropping.
At last the idea of "Smart Motorways", makes sense. Automated electric goods vehicles in the nearside lane, controlled by radar, giving us back the opportunity to use a "safe" place to leave a broken down vehicle.
Although it does open another can of worms.Where are we going to get all this extra leccy?
 
There is a lot more of the north sea to cover with turbines. Don't forget the government wants us all to convert our gas boilers to heat pumps too.
Trotter said:
The sound of another penny dropping.
At last the idea of "Smart Motorways", makes sense. Automated electric goods vehicles in the nearside lane, controlled by radar, giving us back the opportunity to use a "safe" place to leave a broken down vehicle.
Although it does open another can of worms.Where are we going to get all this extra leccy?
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I don’t think any reasonable person would argue that filling city centres with poisonous fumes, which result in health issues for thousands of people each year, and thousands of premature deaths is acceptable. But also what’s not acceptable is we have known about this for decades and done nothing about it. We were even told by Gordon Brown in his “dash for diesel campaign“ that diesel was better for the environment.
What angers people is when politicians find new ways of making money. This should have been done decades ago, so why has it taken so long, why are we so far behind other countries in the EU that have had these LEZ zones for years.
Diesels have never been cleaner than they are now, a new Euro 6 engine is 8 times cleaner than a euro 2, just think of what harm they have done. Is charging people the right way forward, who knows, but to many this just looks like a new way of screwing motorists for more money. Also why charge low mileage motorhomes and not cars. My car has a more powerful engine than my Motorhome.
 
While I agree in the main with Fisherman. I'm concerned that the LEZ's act as a blanket ban, 24/7. The schemes I've applied for,for travel in France and Germany, only come into force when the air quality locally reaches a certain level. Or so I understand.
Sledge hammer/nut ?
Gordon Browns "dash for diesel", was proof if needed, he'd lost the plot. Perhaps his official car was provided by VW. lol.
 
Derekoak said:
There is a lot more of the north sea to cover with turbines. Don't forget the government wants us all to convert our gas boilers to heat pumps too.
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I've just looked into getting an air source pump. £15-20k to have one installed, a ground source would be more like £25-30k.
 
Robmac said:
I used to run my own pub garden furniture business.

When they brought in the London congestion charge I simply stopped delivering to London. I always hated delivering there anyway. The last straw for me was when I had to deliver to a restaurant. The owner had told us there were no parking restrictions, when I got there it was on a Red Route!

I challenged the owner about this and he said "If I had said we were on a Red Route, you wouldn't have come". I asked him if he was going to pay the fine and he said no. I then drove off without delivering his 12 picnic tables which he needed for that weekend. I got fined and we both lost out.
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Looks like you turned the tables on him then Rob :)
 
Drover said:
Get real, it's just a tax....
If it was to do with the environment they would install a free tram system in every city...
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They have one in Edinburgh that’s cheap as chips, yet Edinburgh is the most polluted city in Scotland. And so far it’s cost £776million, and they may well extend it. Putting a similar system in Manchester would cost billions.
 
Robmac said:
I've just looked into getting an air source pump. £15-20k to have one installed, a ground source would be more like £25-30k.
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We have nearly finished building our small house (single story) including installing a air source heat pump with underfloor heating.
It cost £11,000 . Smallest heat pump available. The grant at the time of purchase gives us £5,000 back (quarterly) over 7 years depending on usage.
 
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