There is a movement within the EU to ban the use of cars older than 10 years. Environmentalists argue that banning older cars would ensure that these supposedly inefficient vehicles would be replaced by vehicles which they would see as being more beneficial to the environment. They fail to grasp one important point. Replacing a car every ten years with a new one would have far greater environmental issues over the sourcing of materials, the disposal of the scrapped vehicle, the energy consumed (and therefore the carbon dioxide produced) to manufacture a new car and this action would lead directly to an increase in car production. At the present time we are advised that Edinburgh City Council is considering banning cars older than 15 years from the city centre � ironic when you consider the connection that our own Scottish Malts Rally has had with the city.

The classic car movement is directly at threat by these and similar proposals and so we invite UK citizens to consider signing the E-petition on the UK Government site at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/classic-cars

We would urge non-UK residents within the EU to investigate organisations supporting the use of classic cars within your own country.