---

Road Safety Bill [HL]

Perhaps it is unnecessary for me to declare an interest in old cars, since it has been there for 50 years. In those 50 years I have been involved in many committees and other think tanks to try to keep vintage cars on the road. All governments have been very sympathetic towards our cause. However, there are considerable problems with retrospective legislation. If someone in Spain said that everyone has to have four traffic indicators, it would completely ruin those cars. The policy followed by successive governments is that the original specification when they were new is good enough. I hope that this issue can be explored. Old cars are a very popular hobby involving 300,000 people. Some of your Lordships may be watching the London to Brighton run in two weeks’ time. We are asking the Minister to support the hobby and to preserve the right to have one’s car on the road. It would much appreciated as it would do enormous damage to the hobby if such a proposal were not followed.