A LONG term vehicle scrappage allowance system designed to remove old polluting vehicles from the UK's road would win the backing of some major vehicle manufacturers, it emerged at Frankfurt. Following the collapse of a short-term scrappage system in France, which has resulted in a slump in new car sales, Jacques Calvet, chairman of PSA, parent company of both Citroen and Peugeot, said he would be happy for a permanent scrappage scheme to be launched by individual national governments.

And such a scheme - one option which the Government could introduce in a bid to clean up the environment - won support from Nick Reilly, chairman and chief executive of Vauxhall.

Calvet told a Frankfurt press conference: 'I would be quite happy for a permanent low level scrappage scheme designed to remove old cars from the roads and not designed to give impetus to the new car market. Local measures should be adopted where there are real problems.'

Reilly said that such a scheme would have to operate in the UK for at least three years so as not to artifically inflate the UK market and offer price reductions on new vehicles of up to around £1,000 for vehicle owners trading in polluting vehicles. Both manufacturers and Government would jointly fund the scheme.