Greens see red over Brown

Barnet Green party members say that Chancellor Gordon Brown's plan to increase tax on the most polluting cars to 400 pounds next April is nothing like enough to deter the owners of the gaz guzzlers which throng Barnet's roads.

When local people are paying upwards of 50,000 pounds for one of these environmentally-extremely-unfriendly vehicles, an extra 400 pounds for tax is hardly likely to make them think again.

A survey last year showed that 8,716 Band G vehicles were sold to Barnet residents in the five years to 2006, more than than to residents of any other London borough. "Never mind 400 pounds, the tax needs to be 4X400 pounds if it is to prompt a reduction in the number of these huge and menacing cars on our local roads," said Andrew Newby, Barnet Green party speaker on transport.

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