On Sat, 4 Nov 2017 01:13:54 +0000, Steve Walker
wrote:

On 03/11/2017 20:42, wrote:

If fuel duty is to pay for roads, why should boats pay for them?

I don't see why the owner of a Sunseeker or similar large pleasure
vessel who is willing to spend a couple of million buying it and a
few thousand a year just berthing it should get cheap fuel to aid
their hobby when someone who can only afford to indulge in a bit of
car rallying or a bit of green laning in their Land Rover cannot.

You can use red diesel in your Landrover, as long as you do not drive on
public highways - and that includes green lanes, as they are still
designated as such.

A green lane doesn't have doesn't have any legal definition as such ,
it is just a descriptive name for a of type track that is unmetalled.
Some are not public highways, others are many having been re
designated in recent times to restrict access to vehicles but there
are still quite a number that are fully accessible.
You need to be fully legal as regards insurance, MOT if the vehicle
requires one and Ironically road tax, I doubt you will get away with
trying to claim that because such a road is unmetalled you can use
red diesel.

You can off-road around a private quarry or farmer's field to your
heart's content on red diesel.

Well.that is a bit of a statement of the obvious and if those who
run off road experiences courses and have no need to drive the
vehicles off site it would save a few bob but I also mentioned
car rallying and there cannot be that many places in the UK where
you could hold a car rally without traversing public roads,not that
many rally cars will be diesel anyway though if you include road runs
which are a pleasure trip exhibiting interesting vehicles some will
be.
A motoring hobby that has grown in recent years is the weekend tractor
run as it is relatively cheap to get hold of and maintain an
interesting old piece of machinery and go off in convoy with others
hindering the journey to the garden centre for 1000's
Some belong to people who keep them in a suburban semi others are an
old "pet" on a farm that grandad bought and is still used for small
jobs rather than fire up the mew bungalow sized John Deere.

HMRC have noticed this new hobby and have warned a few people that
driving to a pub on your tractor isn't actually an agricultural
purpose and that using red diesel may result in prosecution.
No problem for the bloke in the semi to comply but the farm pet may
still be in use for agriculture most of the time.


G.Harman