Trade bodies disagree with EIC advice on how to cut emissions

Industry organisations have reacted angrily to a letter from the Environmental Industry Commission (EIC) to MP Jim Fitzpatrick, Under Secretary of State in the Department for Transport.

In the letter the EIC urges the government to recommend that local authorities wanting to cut emissions should adopt the London Best Practice Guide requirement to diesel particulate filters (DPF) on construction plant.

The Civil Engineering Contractors Association (CECA), the Construction Plant-hire Association (CPA) and the Construction Equipment Association (CEA) have all written to Fitzpatrick pointing out inaccuracies and weaknesses in the EIC's letter.

CECA refutes the EIC's assertion that construction plant contributes 18% of PM10 particulates into the atmosphere. It said an EC Technical Review showed the UK construction industry contributes only 0.25% of PM10 emissions in Europe.

Its technical and environmental spokesman John Wilson said: "Unnecessarily fitting DPFs will be costly, time-consuming and problematic in terms of health and safety and plant warranties and may interfere with plant operability. It will increase construction costs, which will ultimately be borne by the client."

The CPA and CEA point out that the EIC is a trade body with the stated aim of influencing government policy.

Tim Faithfull of the CEA said the EIC's letter was grossly misleading and motivated more by economic than environmental considerations. He cited an EU study showing that EU construction accounted for 9% of PM10 emissions in the EU-15, that it was the least polluting of the 10 sectors listed and that that level will fall further by 2010.

CPA chief executive Colin Wood CPA said the GLA "has only been listening to one side of the argument". The GLA decided to require DPFs to be fitted to plant before it consulted with the construction industry and plant owners, said Wood.