The city council says...
The city council says recording every incident which results in a fixed penalty will dramatically reduce the 20,000 disputed tickets a year. A spokeswoman for the authority said: "The cameras will provide a photographic record of every car issued a ticket to give evidence in a dispute."
Cut-price imports from...
Cut-price imports from China – which for years have enabled drivers to reduce their running costs without compromising road safety – are set to soar in price as a clutch of economic reforms put the country’s competitive advantage on the skids.
“It’s down to a combination of the rising cost of raw materials, a shortage of shipping containers and taxation changes,” explained Peter Taylor, director of the Imported Tyre Manufac÷turers’ Association. “Prices could rise significantly,” he added. As part of its struggle to slash the massive trade imbalance with western economies, the Chinese government is now squeezing its ÷£5billion-a-year tyre industry. Export subsidies on tyres are being cut from 13 to five per cent, and the cost is likely to
be passed on to already cash-strapped drivers in the UK and other European countries. This means fitting your car with bargain Chinese rubber could soon be a thing of the past.
“At the wholesale level today, a Chinese-made tyre can sell for half the cost of an equivalent produced in Europe,” said Taylor. “But that can only change.”
Meanwhile, rising costs for raw rubber and steel are piling even more pressure on the industry. The increases could see prices rise by as much as five per cent over the next few months.