Red diesel plea to Chancellor
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• The Scottish lawyer who is fighting to stop agricultural contractors taking on general haulage with red diesel in their tractors has complained to the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
In his letter to Gordon Brown, the lawyer—who wishes to remain anonymous—says: "Agricultural contractors are using red diesel to hau! goods and materials on the public roads.
"I fully recognise a High Court judgement in the English High courts which would appear to condone this practice. I contend that this practice is an infringement of a direct nature of the Competition Act 1980, chapter 2.
May I presume to ask you to consider the loss of revenue to the Treasury in a wide field involvement by way of this practice."
The lawyer has also asked Brown to introduce legislation in the Budget to help his cause. He claims to have support for this from the Customs & Excise policy unit.
The lawyer's MSP, Alasdair Morgan, has tabled a question on his behalf in the Scottish Parliament, and is now doing the same in Westminster. He will ask the Chancellor "whether he has received any representations from HM Customs & Excise for increased funding to improve enforcement of regulations pertainingto the use of red diesel".
Last month a High Court judge ruled that tractors not designed to exceed 25mph are allowed to run on red diesel— whatever work they are doing. The lawyer wants to overturn this and to campaign for tougher enforcement of the law which bans faster tractors from using rebated fuel.