GREEN NEWS * France - Considers city centre car bans

Paris,France --Fleet Europe, by Tim Harrup -6 April 2011: -- The French Ecology Minister is to put forward a proposal which would see certain high polluting vehicles banned from eight of the largest city centres in France. According to calculations made by ‘Le Parisien’, some 10 million vehicles currently on the roads could be affected. Both heavy goods vehicles and passenger cars will fall under any new legislation, along with certain motor-bikes. The cars in question are over 13 years old and are too old to be fitted with particulate filters. Paris, Lyon, Bordeaux and five other cities have decided to create priority zones for air quality, known as ‘Zapa’... The minister points out that France risks a record fine for non-conformity with EU regulations in the domain of air quality. The testing of the scheme will begin by 2012 and last three years, before being potentially rolled out into other cities...