I don’t think it is projects as such, just l lthose bikes that get parked up in a garage, shed, garden, wardrobe etc until that day when someone gets that irritating electrical fault sorted out etc and then just get forgotten about. I can think of at least a dozen bikes like that over the years that friends of mine have owned.
As for the numbers - do a quick check yourself of your nearest bike bay using this link - you only need a the number and make.
We shouldn’t be at all surprised that they are making figures up. They will have to because they will have lost the actual figures. They will be on a disc somewhere along with everyones name address etc. this has become standard practice in any large organisation. So to cover their backs they make up a figure and publish it, hoping that not too many people will question it.
What we should do is elect someone to stand for parliment and get them into the system, that way we get our views heard. We just need to volunteer someone.
I would love to go into the goverment but I have too many skeletons, ex wives and enemies…and I dont like conformity and or overly intrusive pointless laws to pamper after short term public opinion…
I’ll start by introducing myself. I am a 27 Year old Father of 2. I drive a Ford Mondeo Estate and i Also ride a CBR600 Motorbike. I pay coucil tax on my 3 bed semi, i paid stamp duty when purchasing it, i pay road tax for both my vehicles not to mention tax on everything else i buy or earn. All of my fellow bikers that i associate with are also law abiding citizens that pay their taxes. I am a member of 3 Motorbike forums totalling over 4000 members.
I will now ask a series of questions to which i would appreciate a direct answer.
Your Quote: “Motorcyclists are particularly liable to evade road tax. Nearly 40% of motorcycles are now unlicensed.”
Can you please Justify those quantities, with evidence?
Do you consider a motorbike that is legally SORN to be evading tax?
If these were bikes avoiding tax, under the new computerised system, would these criminals not receive fine’s automatically?
I find the following statement laughable as it is as unquantifiable as my quote “Poloticians are Crooks”.
Your Quote: “Large parts of the biking community are cocking a snook at the law.”
Can you please Justify this statement with evidence of the snooking that is apparently a large part of my community? If not can you please show me the evidence to this statement so that i may not, in fact, believe it is Slanderous.
Please note i will post a copy of this letter on each of the forums and would like to inform you that i will post your response… if you dont “**** a snook” at my email.
This is so biased, i just hope that his mailbox if VERY full when he bothers to read it next.
“Motorists and motorcyclists who refuse to pay road tax are stealing from law-abiding taxpayers and unlicensed cars are often associated with other forms of crime,” said committee chairman Edward Leigh.
You cant make this stuff up, this guys got a great retirement job writing fiction novals!
Those prats will just get a minion to delete them all, cos they think they are better than everyone else, how else can a deputy walk straight into the top job unelected ? try it in your company and see what happens, think its time for wolfie smith of the tooting peoples party to rise again citizens
I would love to go into the goverment but I have too many skeletons, ex wives and enemies…all of which make you eminently suitable to join the present regime!
yes you may well be right but i am a real bloke with nothing that I am ashamed of…but still its not going to happen thats for sure I am way too right wing and liberal…now what a mix that is…
Well I got a further reply, however he doesn’t actually answer the questions and the reply is by proxy.
Isn’t this a surprise from a politician…
Dear Mr Sutton
Thank you for writing to the Chairman of the Committee of Public
Accounts, Edward Leigh, he has asked me to reply on his behalf. You ask
how the Committee arrived at the 40% figure. The figure is derived from
a roadside survey of over one million vehicles conducted by the
Department. Full details of the survey are available on the
Department’s website.
With regard to the reported comments about the congestion charge, and
also criminality. The Committee notes:
“Evasion of congestion charges is a factor in the increased level of VED
evasion. Vehicle keepers may try to avoid congestion charges by using
false or cloned plates so that they cannot be traced from the DVLA’s
records and hence can not be sent the congestion charge penalty. Many of
those vehicles will also show as unlicensed if seen as part of the
annual roadside survey. VED enforcement against this group is causing
significant and increasing problems for the DVLA. The police experience
comparable difficulties when they try to track vehicles wanted in
relation to other crimes.”
The Committee has no view on the congestion charge itself.
So according to that reply were all running around on false plates or cloned vehicles to avoid the congestion charge ? hmmm must ask my MP when congestion charge was introduced to Bedfordshire, what a swinging sweeping load of cobblers just what you expect from the numpties running the place. Like tha fact you cant reply to the reuters article either.
When Westminster conducted their consultation on charging for bike parking I said the dishonest will just clone plates or simply fail to register their bike ,and the honest will just choose to work and shop outside the borough.
Ok so they are bloody liars (we know this) and they make figures up to push numbers (again, we all know this). Why is everyone getting all het up about it? Its just another push by the government to get more money and scare more ‘decent and law abiding citizens’ into realizing that bikers are all scary hoodlums (Im sorry but not all of us look like some big ginger bloke Im not gonna mention :D). Instead of getting worked up about having to pay or not to pay we should organise a rally. do a ride out with a signed petition. Just this time please organise it on my day of as I have no more annual leave! lol
Whilst the figures are lower than before - they don’t work well in motorcyclists favour as they still show that motorcycles are more than five times more likely than road traffic generally to not be taxed whether you use the raw or the “unlicensed vehicles travel less” massaged figures.
But I have to give a health warning because the full version is full of some scary equations - for example calculating “Average mileage run by non-evading vehicles in tax class h” requires an equation with 32 characters in it!
