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You are Visitor No:
Are you concerned about the spread of London Emission Zone (LEZ ) into other areas. WILL your Vehichle Pass its tests for LONDON click and check :- Emission INFO Button Just like safety cameras have. Then sign the PETITION. Every small voice helps.If you have a motorhome or even a 4 x 4, it may not comply and you will probably have to replace it. Can you afford to simply dump your investment and hard earned cash . 24th December special lobby info in MMM magazine page 207 you should read. Some hope at end of tunnel.
11th December Hi. I dont know how many of you are aware of the new legislation concerning diesel.
As of Jan 08 a new 10ppm diesel compared with the 50 ppm diesel we buy now is being implemented, so surely the powers to be will have to recalculate vehicles emissions, as with 10ppm diesel we will all be producing lower emissions.
Only snag with the new 10ppm diesel is it wil cost about 2p per litre more, as it takes longer to refine, to remove the excess sulphur, this along with the proposed duty increase in March could see us paying another 4p per litre. Later on next year they will be implementing a 10ppm unleaded petrol.
For technical information on the above visit
http://www.bp.com/sectiongenericarticle.do?categoryId=9014507&contentId=7027516
But then I have this reply
I have received this
I hadn't heard of the "new fuel" before and didn't have time to do any follow-up last night when I received your message. However, I have now done so and see that, as far as this country is concerned, it isn't actually new. The link to the BP web site in your message last night is to the BP Australia web site.
As regards this country, details are given at http://www.ukpia.com/industry_issues/fuels/sulphur_free_petrol_and_diesel.aspx - it appears that the requirement for the sulphur content of diesel duel not to exceed 10 ppm had to be reached by Tuesday last week (4th December). Therefore, any effect is already with us. It would appear that the person who posted to the MCC web site got their wires crossed somewhere :-)The "new" fuel
Is lower in sulphur which, according to the UKPIA web site, will
Reduce CO2 emissions. However, the LEZ is aimed at reducing
Particulate emissions - a different thing.
As regards this country, details are given at http://www.ukpia.com/industry_issues/fuels/sulphur_free_petrol_and_diesel.aspx - it appears that the requirement for the sulphur content of diesel duel not to exceed 10 ppm had to be reached by Tuesday last week (4th December). Therefore, any effect is already with us. It would appear that the person who posted to the MCC web site got their wires crossed somewhere :-)The "new" fuel
Is lower in sulphur which, according to the UKPIA web site, will
Reduce CO2 emissions. However, the LEZ is aimed at reducing
Particulate emissions - a different thing.
11th December 2007
London Low Emission Zone (LEZ) - L1657776 / LR
Thank you for your recent enquiry received on 10th December 2007, about the LEZ Scheme.
Vehicles classed as M1 are not subject to the LEZ.
All diesel-engined motor caravans that are greater than 2.5 tonnes Gross Vehicle Weight are
subject to the LEZ Scheme.
As the Scheme will have a phased introduction, only diesel-engined motor caravans over 12
tonnes Gross Vehicle Weight will be subject to the Scheme from 4th February 2008. These
vehicles will be required to meet an emission standard of Euro III to be used in the Zone without
paying the daily charge.
From 7th July 2008, all diesel-engined motor caravans weighing between 3.5 and 12 tonnes
Gross Vehicle Weight will be required to meet this standard.
From October 2010, all diesel-engined motor caravans weighing between 2.5 and 3.5 tonnes
Gross Vehicle Weight will also be required to meet the Euro III standard.
From January 2012, all diesel-engined motor caravans weighing over 3.5 tonnes Gross Vehicle
Weight will be required to meet an emission standard of Euro IV.
If the vehicle has been classed as N1 it will be subject to the LEZ. Vehicles classified as M1 are
cars. Motor caravans will not be classified as M1.
If you have any questions regarding the Scheme you may find it useful to visit our website, just
log on to www.tfl.gov.uk/lezlondon. You may also telephone our Contact Centre on 0845 607
0009, Textphone 0207 310 8999 (if you have impaired hearing), where a member of staff will be
more than happy to help.
Thank you for contacting Transport for London.
Daljit Mahal
Operations Manager
Yours faithfully
London Low Emission Zone
I would imagine the reason Fiat say it can't be done is that ideally it needs to be designed in from the onset, otherwise its much more difficult and can even cause catastrophic engine failure, so its easier to say no than maybe.
The filter goes in the exhaust line and needs periodic regeneration to stop it becoming blocked, if it becomes blocked there is a good chance of the back pressure causing your exhaust valves to hit the top of your pistons, not recommended.
Regeneration is carried out by your ecu pumping neat fuel into it or having heating elements in it, at over 600c the particulate burns away leaving it clean, again some form of control is needed.
The whole exercise seems a bit iffy to me, and I am not surprised figures of £3000 have been quoted. But it would seem that any vehicle can be converted, if you are willing to pay the price. I wonder if any of the converters give guarantees against the filter failing and damaging the engine?
If you want read wikipedia here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diesel_particulate_filter
Info I have received so far from various sources.
This is an announcement from Volvo I Have emailed Fiat for their comments
Automakers are making all sorts of modifications to existing models to beat the 120 g/km of CO2 limit for free entry into London when the Congestion Charge rules change (e.g., Audi A3, 16 models from Peugeot, and 23 from Citroën). For trucks and other large vehicles, the key date is February 2008, when new rules for the London Low Emission Zone (LEZ) kick in. In preparation, Volvo Trucks is broadcasting loud and clear that some of their trucks will be exempt from the incredibly pricey £200 entry fee.
The LEZ rules will be introduced in phases, and Volvo's PR materials say that, "The good news is that all Volvo engines supplied to the UK market since 1993, including all the 12-litre Euro 1 and Euro 2 D12A to D12C power units fitted to the first FH and FM trucks, all the D16's fitted to the first generation FH16's and also the D6A fitted to the FL6, meet or exceed the Euro 3 emission levels required for entering the capital." Trucks will still need to be inspected annually to prove they are indeed still "low emission" vehicles.
[Source: Volvo]
I passed on the question of Class MI to the Minister of Transport Office (reply below)
My Local MP has written also to the Treasury Minister and asked for her comments I will let you know what these are as soon as I hear.
I have copied my petition and all the people signing it 243 so far and sent that to Ken Livingstone and that is the all I seem to be able to do.
I will just let the petition run and keep sending it in to him all through next year
If you havent signed please do The Link is http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/motorhomes/ (see link above )
Boris office after I e-mailed the petition link to him
Dear Ms Nye,
Thank you very much for bringing this particular issue to our attention. All your comments and suggestions are greaty appreciated.
Boris Johnson's campaign is at present holding 'working groups' throughout London to develop solutions for London.
We have had a lot of correspondence about the predicted emission charges and we should be putting more information on our website about this issue soon.
I will in the meantime make sure your comments will get forwarded to the relevant people for future discussion groups (as stated below. )
Many thanks again and kind regards,
Georgiana
_________________________________
10 December 07
From 1 January 2008 a total of 33 German cities will require all motorists to purchase a "Pollution Badge" in the form of a windscreen sticker in order to enter city centre ‘Umwelt Zones’ (green zones).
The participating cities are: Augsburg, Berlin, Braunschweig, Köln (Cologne), Darmstadt, Dresden, Düsseldorf, Essen, Frankfurt am Main, Hannover, Heidelberg, Islfeld, Karlsruhe, Kassel, Leipzig, Leonburg, Ludwigsburg, Madgeburg, Mannheim, Mühlacker, München (Munich), Neu-Ulm, Nürnberg (Nuremberg), Pforzheim, Pleidelsheim, Regensburg, Reutlingen, Ruhr Area, Schwäbish-Gmund, Stuttgart, Tübingen and Ulm.
You must present your vehicle registration document at Pollution Badge (Umwelt Plakette) sales outlets, including vehicle repair centres, car dealers, MOT (Tüv) stations and vehicle licensing offices, and you will be issued with a badge, coloured (Red/Yellow/Green) according to your vehicle’s Euro emission rating.
The cost of the badge is understood to be between €5 and €10 and, once issued, covers you throughout Germany for the life of your vehicle. Failure to display a badge could incur a fine of €40. Enforcement will be managed by the police, local authorities and traffic wardens.
The system seems fairer than the LEZ as it effects all motor vehicles and the badge lasts for the life of the vehicle and covers all the participating cities.
However, legal struggles are still ongoing, especially regarding older motorhomes: The problem is that almost 50% of all German motorhomes are too old to get a Pollution Badge at all, at least without retrofitting a particle filter. And the makers of refit particle filters are not too much interested here, as there would be many different filter models required, each only for a very low total number of vehicles.
So, if it goes as planned then the Umwelt Zone scheme would effectively ground a large number of German motorhomes. To avoid a legal defeat, German authorities currently think about making exceptions: Maybe that owners of affected vehicles who live in an Umwelt Zone will be allowed to travel in and out of their zones. Another discussed model is to make an exception for motorhomes in general.
Meanwhile also the motorhome manufacturers have realized that not - as they had obviously hoped earlier - all owners of such old motorhomes will run and buy shiny new ones. So they now also have started campaigning for exceptions.
The fact that local councils, the federal states, and the federal gouvernment all have their say in this, does not exactly make things easier, so it could even happen that the introduction of Umwelt Zones will be delayed once again.
This is the Otherside of the Argument Global warming? It's natural, say experts
by BARRY WIGMORE - More by this author »
Last updated at 22:36pm on 13th September 2007
Comments (25)
Some scientists have suggested global warming is due to a natural 1,500-year cycle
Global warming is a natural event and the effects are not all bad, two respected researchers claimed yesterday.
Authors Dennis Avery and Fred Singer looked at the work of more than 500 scientists and argue that these experts are doubtful the phenomenon is caused by man-made greenhouse gases.
Climate change is much more likely to be part of a cycle of warming and cooling that has happened regularly every 1,500 years for the last million years, they say.
And the doom and gloom merchants, who point to the threat to the polar bear from the melting North Pole, are wrong, the authors say.
Even if our climate is changing, it is not all bad, they suggest, because past cold periods have killed twice as many people as warm periods. Mr Avery said: "Not all of these researchers who doubt man-made climate change would describe themselves as global warming sceptics but the evidence in their studies is there for all to see.
"Two thousand years of published human histories say that the warm periods were good for people.
"It was the harsh, unstable Dark Ages and the Little Ice Age that brought bigger storms, untimely frost, widespread famine, plagues and disease."
Scroll down for more...
Recent flooding in the UK has fuelled fears about global warming, but scientists are debating what has caused it
Read more...
Homeowners 'forced' to go green before carrying out loft conversions under Tories
Mr Singer said: "We have a greenhouse theory with no evidence to support it, except a moderate warming turned into a scare by computer models whose results have never been verified with real-world events.
"The models only reflect the warming, not its cause."
The most recent global warming was between 1850 and 1940, the authors say, and was therefore probably not caused by man-made greenhouse gases.
Historical evidence of the natural cycle includes a record of floods on the Nile going back 5,000 years; Roman wine production in Britain in the first century AD; and thousands of museum paintings that portray sunnier skies during what is called the Medieval Warming, and more clouds during the Little Ice Age.
The authors looked at a raft of studies which, they claim, undermine the "scare-mongering" by those blaming man for destroying the planet.
In the current warming cycle, they say there is evidence that storms and droughts have been fewer and milder; corals, trees, birds, mammals and butterflies have adapted well; and sea levels are not rising significantly.
Polar bears are threatened by global warming
Mr Avery is a fellow of the Hudson Institute, an independent U.S. thinktank that tends to side with big business.
He was a senior agricultural analyst at the State Department when Ronald Reagan was president. Mr Singer is a climate physicist.
The pair spent months analysing scientific reports for their book, Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years, to counter claims made by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore in his film An Inconvenient Truth.
They argue that variations in the Sun's radiation have far more influence on our climate than humans.
Mr Singer said: "This can all be explained by the Sun's activity."
He added: "The number of the Sun's cosmic rays hitting the Earth affect the number of low, cooling clouds that reflect solar heat back into space, amplifying small variations in the intensity of the Sun."
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FROM The Minister OF Transport Office
LOW EMISSION ZONE
Thank you for your emails of 29 October 2007 regarding the European classification of motorcaravans and their operation in the Low Emission Zone (LEZ).
You are correct in your understanding of the European classification given to your vehicle. Transport for London (TfL) is aware that motorcaravans are legally defined as passenger carrying vehicles and so fall into the M1 category. However, because the emissions from these vehicles may be substantially higher than those from passenger cars, TfL has included the vehicles in this class within the scope of the LEZ and are defined as such in Annex 2 of the Scheme Order. As explained previously, such vehicles have similar emissions characteristics to the Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs) and Light Goods Vehicles (LGVs) from which they are derived, and as such TfL considers that they should be applied to the same emissions requirements
Operators of lorries, buses, coaches and all other vehicles over 3.5 tonnes which do not meet the LEZ standards will need to pay a daily charge of £200. There will be a £100 charge for non-compliant minibuses, large vans and all other vehicles 3.5 tonnes and under, affected from 2010, for each charging day they are driving in the zone. I fully appreciate your situation but the level of charge has been set in order to encourage operators to clean up their vehicles rather than pay the daily charge.
I would like to re-iterate that there are still options available to you to comply with the scheme (and thus avoid the daily charge) including: fitting particulate abatement equipment to the vehicle or certifying that an eligible engine meets the required standard. TfL has a set up a dedicated enquiries service to help vehicle owners understand what the LEZ means for them and what they may have to do to comply with the scheme. The call centre can be contacted on 0845 607 0009. Alternatively, further information about the LEZ can be found on TfL’s website at: www.tfl.gov.uk/lezlondon.
The LEZ was subject to two rounds of public and stakeholder consultation during 2006-07. The LEZ remains the most effective option for achieving reductions of the most harmful road transport generated emissions in London between 2008 and 2015. Further information on the public consultation and the need to implement the LEZ can be found on TfL’s website at: www.tfl.gov.uk/roadusers/lez/furtherinfo.
Policy Officer
London Low Emission Zone ____________________________________________________________________________
From the Minister of State
Rt Hon Rosie Winterton MP
To Julian Brazier TD MP
House of Commons
London
SW1A OAA 6 December 2007
Dear Julian
Thank you for your letter of 29 October enclosing correspondence from your constituent Mrs Mavis Nye about the classification of motorhomes and the London low emissions zone (LLEZ)
I have noted Mrs Nye's concerns but, following the creation of the Greater London Authority. Transport for London (TFL) (under the Mayors jurisdiction) is now responsible for the day to day management of the transport services in London (with exception of the National Railway at present.)
Parliament gave the Mayor of London the powers to introduce road charging schemes in Greater London in the Greater London Authority (GLA) act 1999 which created the Greater London Authority.
The aim of the scheme is to improve air quality for those living, working or studying in London, as well as to help London and the UK move closer to achieving national and EU air quality targets.
The Government remains committed to improving air quality and the Department for Transport supports the aims of the LLEZ
Mrs Nye is correct in suggesting that in principle, motorhomes are classified as Category M1 vehicles under European Vehicle approval regulations Unfortunately some motorhome converters use the base vehicles type approval details (usually the base vehicle is a truck chassis, which is category N 1) to gain registration and thus the vehicle is recorded within DVLA as N1 category and not M1.
The records held at DVLA will determine the category of emission charges.
If Mrs Nye's registration certificate (document V5C) shows the vehicle as a Motorhome but an N1 type approval category she should return it to DVLA with a covering letter for amendment.
I hope this explains the position
Rosie Winterton
These are some extracts from the original letter. You should go here and view comments
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/projectsandschemes/environment/lowemissionzone/2027.aspx
________________________________________________________________________
A great write up from the editor of the Practical Motorhome
Unlike cars (registered on or after 1 March, 2001) motorhomes are not subject to tax bands based on CO2 emissions and fuel type. Van conversions and coachbuilt motorhomes weighing less than 3500kg are classed as private/light goods vehicles and vehicle excise duty (VED) rates are levied at £99 (six months) and £180 (12 months). But there are differences where other types of motorhome are concerned. We dropped the DVLA a line about this, and posed a number of questions. Thank you David Whitbread, from the DVLA press office, who provided the answers: Is there a difference in VED costs for ’vans over 3.5 tonnes? “Yes, over 3.5 tonnes the vehicle falls into the Private/HGV (PHGV) class. Vehicle tax is charged at a flat rate, irrespective of the weight or wheel plan of the vehicle. To tax your vehicle as P/HGV, you need to apply to a DVLA local office using form V85, together with supporting documentation (12 months currently costs £165, six months costs £90.75).” Do panel van conversions pose a problem? “Panel vans weighing 3.5 tonnes or less, registered since March 2001, should have been type approved as an N1 vehicle and therefore licensed in the Light Goods Vehicle class. Where vehicles are converted after registration, the licensing status does not change. Problems are caused where vehicles are converted prior to registration and are incorrectly registered as goods vehicles. Providing the DVLA receives written confirmation from the converter/manufacturers that the change took place prior to registration, our records will be changed and the vehicle will be licensed in the PLG class (PHGV if over 3.5 tonnes).” How does this apply to non-standard vehicles – i.e. those which have been converted as one-offs, or by enthusiasts? “As in the previous answer it would depend when the vehicle was converted and the status of the original vehicle.” If you buy a vehicle and find that on its registration documents it is described as a ‘commercial vehicle’ rather than and a ‘motorhome’, should you contact DVLA and re-apply for VED? “As previously stated, providing the DVLA receives written confirmation from the converter/manufacturers that the change took place prior to registration, our records will be changed and the vehicle will be licensed in the PLG class (PHGV if over 3.5 tonnes).” l Further information: VED rates can be found at www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/OwningAVehicle/HowToTax YourVehicle/DG_10012524. For more general motoring information, go www.dvla.gov.uk. Or, you can call the DVLA Vehicle enquiries direct on 0870 240 0010 or your local office.
Watch this space it`s growing all the time well its 4 May 2008 we have a new Mayor of London Borris. The tirant Livingston has gone, lets hope some common sense will prevail.
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