Dirty classics to fully disappear from cities?

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It’s hard to follow as a classic car owner: which European cities are you allowed to enter with your car and which not? Or for which one do you need to pay? Or buy a sticker or certificate?

The major city closest to our home will soon close it’s environmental zone for anything pre-1993 and it’s certainly not on its own. We just also learned that the city of Oxford is to close streets off to historic vehicles. It’s the same in certain areas of East London from this July-on. From a press statement: “Residents and businesses will be able to apply for exemptions but visitors to designation Low Emissions Neighbourhood (LEN) areas would have to park elsewhere, walk or take public transport. Hackney and Islington Councils were the first to sign off on their LEN programmes, aimed at lowering emissions between the peak hours of 7am and 10am, then from 4pm to 7pm. Other London areas implementing LENs next year include the Barbican (City of London), Greenwich Town Centre (Greenwich), Ilford Garden Junction (Newham and Redbridge) and Marylebone (Westminster).”

Oh, hang on. Historic vehicles of over 40 years old escaped the worst of London’s anti-pollution charges, including the Ultra Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ) and Emissions Surcharge (T-Charge), owners of tax-exempt classics still have to pay the Congestion Charge. Drivers of pre-Euro 4 and modern classic cars remain liable for all three.”

Although we can understand the need of reducing air pollution, especially in cities, it would be good to make a standard for all of Europe as it seems that every city is now coming up with ideas of their own, not making things any clearer - literally speaking. What’s your opinion?

(Words editor, picture PostWarClassic archive)

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