NEARLY 24,000 old bangers were taken off the road between 2008 and 2009, the Transport Ministry said yesterday at the end of the incentive scheme for this year.
The Ministry said yesterday it was uncertain whether state budgetary provision will be made for the continuation of the programme.
“The programme’s continuation does not depend on us. The Department of Road Transport would certainly like to continue this scheme as we had very positive response and it was a success, but it is up to the government whether to include it in the state budget,” said Renos Venezis, Scrapping Programme Inspections Director.
In the two years it ran, the programme cost the state a total of €19.6 million. In 2009 alone, it cost the state €8.3 million and it is speculated that it may inevitably be sacrificed as part of the general cost-cutting due to the financial crisis.
Of the 10,039 applications – all of which were approved – 887 qualified for funding of €257, while 6,834 applicants got €684, and 1,230 qualified for €1,283 Some 1,088 applicants got the sum of €1,710.
The 2009 programme was the third state scrapping scheme, as two more vehicle recall and replacement schemes ran in 2008.
Together, the two 2008 programmes received 13,602 applications, representing the sum of €11.3 million handed out by the state to participants.
However, the cost is considered minimal compared to the programme’s benefits in terms of road safety and pollution reduction.
“The programme’s benefits were multiple and included the improvement of road safety from the removal of vehicles with old systems of pedaling, suspension, and forwarding, without airbags or other modern safety systems, and their replacement with more safe vehicles; the reduction of pollution through the removal of air-polluting vehicles or vehicles that were dumped by their owners in yards and fields,” Venezis said.
“There were also financial benefits to vehicle owners, particularly those who chose to replace old cars with new, low-consumption vehicles,” he added.
At the end of the day, the Road Transport Department believes that old unsafe cars are still out there, as only a small percentage of programme qualifiers used the scheme. “The number of vehicles that were approved for scrapping represents approximately 10 per cent of vehicles which we estimate could qualify for scrapping under the provisions of the relevant law,” he explained.
