Richmond axes 'gas guzzler' charge heady to go

The London council that forced "gas guzzler" drivers to pay up to four times as much as other motorists for parking is to scrap the scheme.

Richmond was the first local authority to raise the cost of residents' parking permits for vehicles producing more emissions and was branded "the council that hates cars" for doing so.

But its scheme quickly spawned similar schemes in eight other London boroughs and across Britain. The decision in January 2007 to hit bigger-engined cars enraged drivers who saw the cost of their permit rise from between £45-£100 to as high as £300, with charges for a second high-polluting car rising to £450.

The AA said the scheme hit families who needed bigger vehicles and said it was "absurd" to tax a vehicle more when it was stationary, with its engine switched off.

Yesterday the Conservatives in Richmond - who unseated the controlling Lib-Dems in May - admitted that getting rid of its "unpopular, unfair and ineffective" scheme would cost it £240,000 a year in lost fees.

Nicholas True, Conservative leader of Richmond council, said the council had "no clear evidence car ownership has changed".

"It is regressive. It hurts residents in smaller terrace houses in roads with controlled parking, while letting those in big houses with drives off scot-free. It taxes car ownership, not car use. It was environmentally damaging in that it gave residents an incentive to turn London's front gardens into parking lots to avoid tax."