Petition against retro-application of higher road tax bands

[nsutherland]

Please sign my petition at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Roadtaxrates/

I need at least 200 signatures to ensure a response from the Government, and the more the better. A hundred thousand or so and the press will notice - so tell all your friends!

The petition reads as follows:

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to reverse the
decision to abolish the exemption from higher road tax rates
for cars that emit more than 225g/km of CO2 and were registered
between March 2001 and March 2006

HM Treasury plans to withdraw the exemption from higher road
tax rates for cars that were registered before the new top rate
was introduced. This decision gives the lie to the claim that
the increase in excise duty on high-emitting cars was intended
to influence purchasing decisions in favour of more
environmentally-friendly vehicles. The cars now being drawn
into the highest tax band - many of them ordinary family cars -
already exist and taxing their continued existence will not
change that. From the environmental point of view it remains
better to use these cars until the end of their natural life
than to scrap and replace them, because a high proportion of a
car’s lifetime emissions are released during manufacture. Many
who bought their cars in good faith – remember that in 2001
225g/km was not even a high level – are now faced with a
crippling but unavoidable increase in tax. Even the option of
selling their cars to those who travel lower mileages, and
buying low-emission replacements, will be denied them as their
vehicles become unsaleable. This decision must be reversed in
the interests of justice and the environment.