The Good and the Bad

The good news for those who favour older cars has been that the £40 tax-rebate continues, and indeed has been extended to vehicles constructed (rather than first taxed) prior to 1947. Peter Bottomley, Minister of Roads and Traffic at the Ministry of Transport, has also pledged that the new emission rulings will not apply to what he calls veteran cars.

The bad news is that the MoT is ignoring the long-established legislation that links a registration number with the life of the chassis to which it was allocated, and trying to withhold such numbers from historic vehicles which were not recorded on the Swansea computer some years ago.

The Ministry seems anxious to keep such early numbers, in order to offer them for sale — a curious line for a Government Department to follow — providing instead for the deprived vehicles “appropriate” two- or three-letter numbers. This will make a travesty of motoring history, and must be strongly opposed.