New European Union (EU) diktats could see every town across the UK forced to introduce congestion charges for motorists as Brussels strives to meet its own self-imposed climate change targets.
The recommendations have been made by the European Commission in a guide for local and regional authorities on how to deliver its Europe 2020 strategy.
According to the Sunday Express, the strategy is a key part of the European Union’s 10-year jobs and growth initiative which is committed to reducing greenhouse emissions by at least 20 per cent, compared to 1990 levels, by 2020.
The guide sets out how local authorities can play “an important role” in collecting charges and said it was critical “to ensure that local or regional taxes or charges are consistent with wider objectives”. Leeds, Birmingham, Nottingham, Derby and Southampton have already been targeted by bureaucrats as liable to face the charge sooner rather than later.
The EU’s guide delivers a template for imposing the impost: “Specific examples of local charging schemes that both generate local revenues and serve wider public policy objectives include: congestion charging for private car use in urban centres; charging for commercial and domestic waste collection and disposal has the advantage of ensuring the sustainability of the service and sending out a clear economic signal to polluters.”
Last night critics told the Express the plan is already being put into effect, with the announcement in December, introduced without fanfare shortly before Christmas, that five English cities are to have clean air zones by 2020.
Under the plans, which are aimed at helping Britain meet its legally binding emission targets, high polluting vehicles, such as older buses, will be charged if they enter the zones.
Tory MP Andrew Bridgen responded to this latest intrusion by the EU saying: “The European Commission doesn’t do guidance, it does diktats.
“We should all be under no illusion that this is the direction of travel it wants us to go in.”
As Breitbart London reported, the EU’s drive to fulfil its own targets on climate have impacted the UK before.
Under EU law, Britain is committed to generating 15 per cent of its total energy, including power, heat and transport, from renewable sources by 2020. In practice, that will require 30 per cent of the country’s electricity to be generated by renewables as mandated by Brussels, an almost impossible target to achieve in less than four years.
The EU has also previously put forward proposals for Europe-wide road tolls, which could have led to British motorists absorbing bills potentially running into thousands of pounds a year.
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