Deputies ‘bottled it’ by failing to stop fuel duty rise

Are the deputies totally naive when it comes to the world of commerce? I have often said that some would struggle to run a bath, let alone a business, but fuel duties by their very nature are highly inflationary.

The milkman, the paperman, the truck and taxi drivers, anyone doing deliveries, builders, and indeed all tradesmen have to use their vehicles for work, and guess what? They will have to pass their increased costs on to us, the general public.

Now if some financial wizard in the States or civil service can persuade me that that is not the case, then I wait to hear from them.

Deputy Trott highlighted the case of people coming back to the island with full fuel tanks and often leaving the island with their tanks as low as they dare. Is that not considered when we keep pushing the price of fuel up? Does Uncle Gavin not realise that the less fuel I sell, the less income tax and social security I pay?

It is all very well Uncle Gavin saying that it will ‘only’ be around £18 per year, but trust me, there are people out here who are really struggling to keep their cars going as it is.

I have quite a few customers over 65 who are still working part or even full time just to pay their rent and those are the sort of people who will be hit by this increase.

Of course, if you are a States-owned body like Guernsey Post or Guernsey Electricity, you can go and buy some very expensive electric vans, at taxpayers’ expense, pat yourself on the back and say how wonderful you are helping to save the planet, whilst your electricity is currently being generated by burning fossil fuel. How ‘green’ is that I ask?

It is high time we stopped this electric vehicle ‘emperor’s new clothes’ hype. Parts of the planet are being raped for production of cadmium, lithium etc. for electric vehicle batteries, often mined by people who are unaware of the health risks involved.

I must ask, where are the batteries going at the end of their life? Is there recycling available and at what cost, both financial and environmental? Let us not forget that 40 or 50 years ago asbestos was the wonderful new product. How many lives has that claimed over the years now?

It is wholly inappropriate that those electric vehicles should use the roads without paying a bean towards taxation.

I would suggest a first registration fee for electric cars and vans, say £3,000 for electric cars and £6,500 for electric vans.

Of course our current arrangements mean that vehicle end-of-life charges are covered by first registration fees, so again we need to see what the costs of disposing of these batteries will be, and if there are significant costs likely to arise then the first registration fee might need to be tweaked upwards.

It is no good saving the planet if it means we get lumbered with tons of dead batteries that nobody wants.

In my book, this was a day for saying ‘enough is enough’ and to stop continually hitting the pensioner and the low paid, regrettably some deputies just ‘bottled out’ of it.

Meanwhile, I am keeping the voting record safely to one side waiting for 2020.

TREVOR HOCKEY

Trev’s Motorcycles.