A year or so ago the London Borough of Richmond broke new ground when it started to charge resident parking permits according to the level of pollution the vehicle produced. Quite apart from any questions of legality, the worst case would see owners of big 4x4 vehicles paying less than one pound a day more than say a Prius owner. Maybe in "save the planet" terms this is the right thing to do but I was never convinced that someone who was about to spend £40,000 plus on a range Rover was going to be put off by this sort of charge. They weren't and Richmond has just announced that they are abandoning the scheme since it made no difference to local residents' car choices. Well done for trying, well done for admitting it didn't work and a gold star for understanding that, if the traffic management tool that is the legislation, doesn't work you should drop the scheme even if you have to give up some money.
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