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Driving Legally with No Tax

  • 01-08-2014 5:47pm
    #1
    MrFoxman360
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 576 ✭✭✭


    Ok, so its probably not the thread you were expecting, and I'm sure some people on here were all fired up to make their judgements!

    But...

    I was reading through the 1951 'Earls Court Motor Show' edition of The Autocar today and came across an interesting article in the News section. A reminder to the motoring public of Britian that one was allowed to drive their 'unlicenced' car to the polling station to vote, I assume for the General Election on the 25th of October

    CCF01082014_00001-Copy_zpsbd791288.jpg

    Never new such exceptions ever existed, or do any exist now, or was there ever such a thing in Ireland. I suppose it allowed people to rest easy even if they had to park beside the polling station door with a Bobby standing outside. Probably encouraged more people to undertake the journey to the polling station to vote.

    Also thought this one was interesting, a reminder of the effects of post war austerity even in '51. You thought waiting 3 months was bad!

    CCF01082014_00002_zpsfb53939c.jpg

    The full news page:

    CCF01082014_00001_zps87ae6a0c.jpg


Comments

  • #2
    macplaxton
    Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators Posts: 2,957 Mod ✭✭✭✭macplaxton


    MrFoxman360 wrote: »
    A reminder to the motoring public of Britian that one was allowed to drive their 'unlicenced' car to the polling station to vote, I assume for the General Election on the 25th of October...

    ...Never new such exceptions ever existed, or do any exist now, or was there ever such a thing in Ireland. I suppose it allowed people to rest easy even if they had to park beside the polling station door with a Bobby standing outside. Probably encouraged more people to undertake the journey to the polling station to vote.

    It was a clause in the UK "Representation of the People Act 1949. There was a similar clause in the UK "Representation of the People Act 1983" (Section 103 (2)) which stated:

    "No person shall be liable to pay any duty or to take out a licence for any carriage by reason only of the carriage being used without payment or promise of payment for the conveyance of electors or their proxies to or from the poll."

    "Carriage" is defined in section 104 which includes mechanically propelled vehicles. http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1983/2/part/II/crossheading/conveyance-of-voters-to-and-from-poll/enacted

    This exemption was repealed 16/02/2001 by the "Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000"

    There are other current exemptions to driving without "road tax" (Vehicle Excise Duty / VED), the main ones being related to MOTs:

    "A vehicle is an exempt vehicle when it is being used solely for the purpose of—
    (a)submitting it (by previous arrangement for a specified time on a specified date) for a compulsory test, a vehicle identity check, a vehicle weight test or a reduced pollution test, or
    (b)bringing it away from any such test or check."

    "Where the relevant certificate is refused on a compulsory test, or a reduced pollution test, of a vehicle or as a result of a relevant re-examination, the vehicle is an exempt vehicle when it is being used solely for the purpose of—
    (a)delivering it (by previous arrangement for a specified time on a specified date) at a place where relevant work is to be done on it, or
    (b)bringing it away from a place where relevant work has been done on it."

    It still must be insured, but in order to obtain a tax disc, you need a valid MOT first.

    I used one of these two last week (didn't need to use the second one). I picked up my car in Essex, which was insured, but without MOT or tax. I drove it 66 miles to a pre-booked MOT test. It passed the test and quickly drove up to the PO to get a tax and drove on to Holyhead.

    I could of skipped the taxing bit as I was "bringing it away" from the test at the time, but that would of limited me doing some other things I had semi-planned on the way back to port, as they would of diluted the "sole purpose" nature of the trip. Note that no limit to distance is specified, nor is there a "reasonable" distance applicable. All it has to be is "solely for the purpose of" and as the caselaw of Secretary of State for Transport v Richards 1998 concluded, it's not a big deal to stop incidentally en-route for petrol and smokes. As it happened, I didn't get a tug from the plod (and I saw a few) even with all the ANPR cameras over there that would of flagged up something. That's over 400 miles and 8 Police forces' patches.:pac:


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