On Wed, 27 Jul 2005 20:45:23 +0100, Stevie D
wrote:

I believe that a 9-seater Landrover Defender 110 is exempt from the
charge, by virtue of it having more than 8 seats. Not the sort of car
you'd think Red Ken would want to encourage, but there you go...

No, but a 12-seater LR 110 is exempt, as it's a minibus.

The definition of a minibus, incidentally, is a vehicle that has 9 or
more passenger seats *additional to the driver*. A more recent
Defender 110 that has 9 seats *in total* (to avoid the minibus
regs[1]) doesn't count.

Or we could, of course, all go and drive around in 17-seater LDVs,
which aren't quite what Ken wants to encourage one passenger to travel
in either. I'm surprised the exemption isn't based on a requirement
for it to be being used as a PSV (taxi etc) and not privately. It
does require registration at a nominal fee, but I recall it is
available to any owner or operator of such a vehicle.

That said, from past experience it's a bugger to park one in London -
too high (7' 6") for most car parks, but not welcome in coach parks!

[1] The original 12-seater Defender exists to avoid the car tax regs;
it doesn't sensibly seat 12 unless all are midgets[2]. How things
change...

[2] Midget adults, not children, because you can't legally use the
side-facing 6 seats for under-16s in the minibus configuration.

Neil

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Neil Williams in Milton Keynes, UK
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