Proposed switch-off engine scheme has already been trialled

SIGNS telling motorists to turn off engines at busy and polluted junctions are already been used in another part of the UK. Simon Grover of St Albans Green Party confirmed this week that Waverley Borough Council had already adopted a scheme similar to the

SIGNS telling motorists to turn off engines at busy and polluted junctions are already been used in another part of the UK.

Simon Grover of St Albans Green Party confirmed this week that Waverley Borough Council had already adopted a scheme similar to the one being investigated for its suitability to cut pollution at the Peahen Junction in the city centre.

After a meeting last month, council officers were asked to urgently investigate the emissions benefits of asking drivers to switch off car engines at the junction because environmental technical advice appeared to be divided.

St Albans council leader, Cllr Robert Donald, said last week that he was not aware that such a measure had been trialled elsewhere in the country.

But Mr Grover, who claimed he was the first to suggest switching off engines to the council back in October, said that the idea was being used by Waverley Borough Council which covers Godalming in Surrey. And he maintained that figures from the Environmental Defense Fund showed that just 10 seconds idling used more fuel than switching the engine off and on.

He went on: "In a place like the Peahen Junction where vehicles are regularly stationary for a minute or more at a time, switching engines off can only be a benefit.

"The more people who do it, the bigger the benefit will be.