'ere, a petition for you all to sign.

Yeahbut you are a honest, law abiding, citizen. Those ads they have abou= t having your car crushed just make me laugh. The scroats that are driving= around unlicensed and/or no insurance and/or no MOT vehicles worth =A310=

00 or less aren't going to pay the tax disc. If they could SORN it without =

having to renew, it's just another loophole for them to use.

A lot of laws these days are brought in under this mishaprehension that =

everyone wants to obey the law. Trouble is a significant number of peopl= e are perfectly happy to operate outside it.

So you are a slow learner? B-)

The thought occurs to me that if I was using a petition site to gauge public opinion I'd make sure that I kept a database of who had signed what and place less weight on the signatures of people who signed loads of minor or inconsequential petitions.

I've only signed one petition on there so far and intend to carry on at a similar or lower rate, if it's important enough to warrant a signature then it's time to write a few letters addressed to your MP in person and maybe a few other relevant politicians ;)

On or around Fri, 25 Jan 2008 09:26:35 +0000 (GMT), "Dave Plowman (News)" enlightened us thusly:

They can be traced, they're registered to me and declared SORN. My objection is that having declared a vehicle off-road, I have to keep on so declaring, every year, for each vehicle. Waste of my time, waste of their time and postage and resources.

IF the vehicle is on the road without tax, it's still just as SORN as it was when I first declared it. Nothing is gained by repeating the declaration. They'd have more resources to pursue genuine dodgers if they didn't waste resources on this.

On or around Fri, 25 Jan 2008 10:01:09 +0000 (GMT), "Dave Liquorice" enlightened us thusly:

this is a red herring - most of those vehicles are not registered to a known address anyway. SORN in principle is good, it provides an instant check that the thing is not meant to be on the road. It's still not necessary to declare SORN more than once.

On or around Fri, 25 Jan 2008 11:07:39 GMT, snipped-for-privacy@btopenworld.com (Tim Jones) enlightened us thusly:

I might do that as well, in our case we have an MP who does appear to take an interest and actually ask questions, etc.

but not all do - I can think of some MPs to whom writing would be a waste of paper.

Pardon me for asking, but just what is the NEED to re-register the vehicle every year, or register it in the first place except as a revenue generator?

Indeed, some people do tend to throw up their hands and say "what's the use" and then do their level best to try and encourage others to give up as well, best thing for them to do is to emigrate to the other side of the fence where the grass is greener. Recently I learned about a height restriction being put on a local RoW that would prevent

4x4s using it, a few letters later and the restriction is being raised to a height suitable for them but not for the gippo caravans that have been plaguing the area. What's the use in "what's the use".

Plus of course just filling out false information each and every year. Can't see much point in regular SORNs other than to squeeze loot out of forgetful welshmen ;-)

In message , Austin Shackles writes

I agree, but I also thing a rational logical letter to your MP also helps. They love having things to fire off at Ministers. You will then at least get a letter from the appropriate department explaining in great detail why they think your idea is crap.

Fairy Nuff.

Hum, so I buy cash in hand, no reciepts, one of your SORN vehicles, you =

don't know me from Adam. Some time later I put the vehicle onto the publ= ic highway, it gets spotted, who do they come looking for you or me? In a year who gets the fine for not renewing the SORN?

The SORN non-renewal fine could be looked at as an incentive for you to =

make sure you do the V5 bit properly when you sell, if only to ensure yo= u are no longer (in theory) legally responsible for that vehicle. Without = a SORN renewal this mis-registration of keeper might not come to light for= years if at all.

If you can't work that out for yourself I can't be bothered telling you.

I'll bet you'll get a reply, though. Filling in an on-line petition - or sending an email - is simply too easy so often doesn't get the response a letter does. But best of all for action is a fax. Dunno why.

On or around Fri, 25 Jan 2008 15:13:58 +0000 (GMT), "Dave Liquorice" enlightened us thusly:

I'd send in the V5 with your name on it, anyway, cash in hand or otherwise - 'cos if not I'd still be liable for it.

yeah, but if you have it on the road registered to me, then the fines come to me, so there's every incentive for me to send in the V5, even if you give me a false name and address, I've still notified that I'm no longer the keeper.

and if you do give false details, I guess sooner or later it'd get flagged up as such and the motor would come up as "not registered" or suchlike when the dibbles checked it.

On or around Fri, 25 Jan 2008 16:07:42 +0000 (GMT), "Dave Plowman (News)" enlightened us thusly:

It's not re-registering, as you well know, DP. I'm starting to think you're a troll.

Again, so what?

Cos if you blew the cobwebs out of your mind and thought about it? What does it benefit me to do it?

It is confirming various details.

I certainly could 'troll' by asking just why some seem so scared of the authorities knowing who owns a vehicle.

He is, catch up Austin ;-) Mr. Killfile is your bestest friend.

You'll be the one they will be come looking for n years down the line. A= nd the DVLA being the DVLA they won't let go unless you have some pretty irifutable evidence regarding your disposal of the vehicle. Saying you sold to a bloke for =A350 5 years ago won't cut any ice...