The Green Party today passed a policy to call for car manufacturers to be made to pay for the public transport and walking and cycling infrastructure that would reduce the need for people to own cars. It seeks five responses to the Volkswagen scandal from the government and mayor of London.
London mayoral candidate Sian Berry, who backed the motion, said at the Green Party’s Autumn Conference in Bournemouth yesterday [Sunday 27 September 2015] that the Volkswagen scandal showed carmakers cannot be relied upon to solve the air pollution crisis.
She said:
“Air pollution causes the early death of nearly 10,000 Londoners every year. And the absolute scandal of Volkswagen cheating its emissions tests shows that we cannot rely on manufacturers’ pledges on cleaner vehicles to solve this problem. To put it mildly, we cannot rely on them at all.
“I am demanding prosecutions and an independent inquiry right now. And for car makers who have lied to us and not cleaned up their cars? I want them to be made to pay for the buses, walking and bike infrastructure, trams and trains we need to reduce traffic and get people off the car dependence that leads them to buy cars in the first place.
“That would be real justice for this criminal fraud.”