The European car manufactures have 10’s of thousands of unsold cars but last year’s models. Buyers of new cars want this year’s model as it is more valuable. The makers cannot reduce the price of last year’s models to clear them as it would have a catastrophic effect on the second hand market. The have been lobbying the EU Commission to make all their components ‘copyright’. This would give them a very lucrative monopoly position in spares and repairs. The EU also want to reduce the number of cars owned by the’Plebs’.
The Right to Repair campaign has temporally stopped this but it is on the EU back burner for future action.
1. After over 3 years warning the motor trade about this reality is at last dawning.
2. Right 2 Repair gathers momentum | Latest
What is the Right 2 Repair campaign? … The website www.r2rc.co.uk has been redesigned with separate areas of trade and the motorist, an online petition …
www.apsw.co.uk/index.php/Latest/r2r-gathers-momentum
.
3. An advance warning for small businesses of some of what is in the pipeline from Brussels. This is a consequence of the Tory Party, the Labour Party and the Lib Dems pushing through the Lisbon Treaty
There is much more to come!
The European Commission are proposing new regulations that will virtually wipe out the restoration of historic vehicles in this country. It will put a vast number of successful small, specialist firms out of business, stop enthusiasts looking after their own vehicles and destroy the pleasure of thousands of people who enjoy classic and historic vehicles. Additionally it will seriously compromise the viability of a great range of community activities and events.
This may well make you laugh but it is not a joke. These proposals have only been put on hold until after the election.
Article from the National Jumblers Federation and published in ‘Old Bike Mart’ by the editor Nigel Clark nclark@mortons.co.uk 01507 529 402
and Dave True 020 8393 3342 truedvd@aol.com
Hidden away in a consultation issued by the Department of Culture Media and Sport, in September last year, is a measure which will cause headaches for organisers of large events. Entitled ‘Consultation on Fee Levels to be Established by Regulation under Licensing Act 2003’, the consultation closed on 23 December and a new fee structure came into force on 7 February. Most deal with village halls, fetes etc but tucked away in the small print is a section entitled ‘Exceptionally large events of a temporary nature requiring premises licenses’. There is no mention of this in the contents section, but the paragraph which has caused most consternation states: ‘Fee levels also need to take account of exceptionally large events which may give rise to exceptional problems and licensing authority costs.
How will this effect Historic Vehicles?
Other shocks also in the pipeline as well from the EU.
1 A proposal to prevent people working on their own vehicles. All work to be carried out by an approved garage. This would kill restorations stone dead and close a lot of clubs. Also, how many modern garages would be prepared to work on classic machinery?
2 Only vehicle manufacturers, through their agents and dealerships, to sell spares. An instant end to all auto-jumbles. Where would we find classic spares?
3 Every vehicle to be subject to a possession tax each year, regardless of age or condition – even a box of bits would be included.
4 Cradle-to grave taxation on all vehicles, again regardless of condition.
5 The Kent Act to be extended across the whole of England and Wales, a disaster for stall-holding events. At the moment a free licence can be obtained from the Kent County Council and there are few Trading Standards officers to police it. If the present Government is re-elected then county councils will be ordered to appoint all the jobsworths they need to enforce the Act and to recoup the costs, which equates to a hefty licence fee.
6 Local authorities will be given greater powers to seize vehicles parked on private land.
7 The use of vehicles over a certain age, maybe only 15 or 20 years, will be severely restricted. Owners will have to submit to their local authorities details of their intended trip and submit a route for approval. Local authorities will, of course, have to charge a fee for this.
8 Vehicles over a certain age, not considered to be historic (by whom?) to be compulsorily scrapped.
9. All vehicles regardless of age, to be fitted with catalytic converters.
10. All event organisers to be forced to apply for planning permission for their events, and the abandonment of the 14-28 day rule which permits venues, such as farmers’ fields, to be used for occasional events without planning approval. Imagine the time it would take: there would have to be consultations with police, opportunities for the public to object etc. What about the proposed fees – £750 for an event with 6000 to 9000 in attendance, £50,000 for events of 75,000 or more.
11. A proposal for compulsory security staff, all vetted and licensed, to be employed at any event where alcohol is served.
“If all the above items come to pass then the additional cost to organisers will be horrific. It will get to the point where stallholders will refuse to pay the rents and the public will not come because the entrance charges are too high. Result? A lot of colour drained from a lot of people’s lives. How many people take part in car boot sales every Sunday? Hundreds of thousands, if not millions regularly attend these events. Do they realise their hobby/pastime is going to severely curtailed?”
Isn’t this absolutely frightening? Can you imagine how miserable this country would become? Are we to become the latter-day Eastern Bloc?
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It is almost too late to do anything about this as the Lisbon Treaty has been signed. UKIP has been trying to make it public knowledge over the last 3 years but the BBC and the media were not interested.
There is an exit clause in the Lisbon Treaty but it required all the other EU countries to agree, will take 2-3 years and the financial penalties horrendous. The only practical way now is for our parliament to repeal the 1972 European Communities Act. That can be done in 24 hours if our MP so wish.
For more info speak to Mick Greenhough PPC for UKIP for Orpington 0780 134 1476
EU is killing car industry
Tuesday, 9th March 2010
UKIP MEP Mike Nattrass has welcomed a report which claims the EU is killing Europe’s automotive industry.
In a report which was published yesterday (March 8) on The Wall Street Journal website, Neil Winton, who writes the European Perspective column for Detroit News Online’s Automotive Insider, claimed the EU is imposing an ‘eye-watering array of fuel efficiency hurdles for car makers to clear in the next 10 years’.
As a result of these hurdles the columnist says European car makers will have to raise, in stages, the fuel economy of the vehicles they manufacture to the equivalent of 43 miles per US gallon by 2015 and to around 60mpg by 2020.
This, according to the Deutsche Bank, could see the cost of cars manufactured in Europe soar by between 500 euros and 1,000 euros as a result of the 2015 fuel economy standards.
Mr Nattrass says the British automotive industry has suffered as a result of costly EU interference.
“In 2005 Peugeot closed its Ryton plant in the UK to move to a purpose-built facility in Slovakia – this was financed by EU grants,” said Mr Nattrass, who is a member of the EU’s Transport & Tourism Committee and is UKIP’s Transport spokesman.
“Looking at even more recent history, last November I warned of how EU governments have a financial stake in exporting the jobs of British General Motors’ workers to Eastern Europe and how the EU provided €70m in loans for the construction of a greenfield plant near St Petersburg in Russia.
“Effectively what we are talking about here is British taxpayers actually subsidising the export of their own jobs.
“Now, new fuel regulations will force the British car industry to increase the price of vehicles on the forecourts at a time when our economy is already struggling.
“EU meddling equals loss of jobs and rising costs to businesses and consumers in Britain. What a great way to stifle the economy.
“We are bombarded by a deluge of expensive EU directives and laws and the LibLabCon just stands by and allows this political takeover to continue at an alarming pace.
“UKIP is the only party committed to standing up for Britain and its interests. It is time for Britain to pull out of the EU,” he added.