A Cumbria MP is to meet a Treasury minister to plead for a tax exemption for mountain rescuers.
A rescue Land Rover, due for a tax rise to more than £400
Tim Farron, Liberal Democrat MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale, will put the case for rescue teams’ vehicles to be exempt from road tax when he meets Angela Eagle, the Treasury minister in charge of excise. Mr Farron said the move would save mountain rescue £40,000 a year.
He welcomed the upcoming meeting, saying: “I am delighted that I along with representatives of mountain rescue in Cumbria and nationally have been invited to discuss exemption for their vehicles with ministers at the highest level.”
All Britain’s mountain rescue teams are staffed by volunteers on call 24 hours a day, every day of the year. They are financed mostly by donations and fundraising events.
Road tax on a typical Land Rover, as used by many mountain rescue teams, will rise to £440 next year, and is planned to rise a further £15 the following year.
Last year, Mr Farron praised the teams for the part they played after the Grayrigg rail accident. He said: “The mountain rescue service performs an invaluable job.
“This was never more obvious than after the train derailment at Grayrigg in February. The mountain rescue service was able to access the site quickly and easily because of the nature of their vehicles, and it would be disastrous if the service had to shut up shop because of excessive VED [vehicle excise duty] charges.”
Guest
11 June 2008I was under the impression that MR teams who register their vehicles from new, as an ambulance were VED exempt?
Guest
12 June 2008Vehicles registered with DVLA as ambulances (which the majority of MR vehicles are) are exempt from road tax. I also can't find any easily accessible reference to non-ambulance Land Rover Defenders , as pictured, having to pay ?440 from next year.
Guest
12 June 2008You are correct. Although the rules have changed you can still get MR vehicles classed as ambulances and therefore VAT and VED exempt as long as they conform. The conversion to ambulance is carried out is better carried out by a specilaist dealer who know what they are doing. MR teams who choose a vehicle that can't be converted then it is probably a bad choice.
woksmuggler
13 June 2008I wonder if any of the guests making comments are actually in an MRT? If they are they should know better. MR is the only Emergancy Service that pays VED on vehicles that are not classed as an Ambulance - even Mines Rescue vehicles are exempt. Many Teams have vehicles that are troop carriers. These vehicles pay VED. VAT exemptions are very tricky and it is costly to convert a 110 to be an ambulance just to avoid VED. The cost to the Treasury would be minimal but to many teams it would bring a substantial relief. Don't forget in most teams the people doing the jobs also do the fund raising - that is a huge personal commitment and yes I am a team member and so I do know what I am talking about.
Guest
14 June 2008Quote 'Road tax on a typical Land Rover, as used by many mountain rescue teams, will rise to ?440 next year, and is planned to rise a further ?15 the following year.' Can anyone help by pointing me to where this information is (concerning Land Rover Defenders)? I can't find anything on the DVLA website? Am I looking in the right place? Thanks
woksmuggler
14 June 2008How much it will rise to is not the point - it should not have to be paid in the first place. Why is MR - the only purely voluntary unpaid emergancy service - lifeboatmen get paid on jobs - having to pay this out of hard eraned funds when no other service does?