Saw this on an insurance site:
Independent petrol stations have pleaded with the government to make it illegal for drivers to wash their cars on Britain’s streets.
The Retail Motor Industry Federation (RMIF), which represents these outlets, wants similar laws as parts of Germany to encourage car owners to pay to use their facilities.
They have also claimed that on-street cleaning by motorists and car insurance policy holders is damaging to the environment as cleaning chemicals can enter the water supply.
Mr Madderson, a representative of the RMIF, told The Daily Telegraph, “Our car washes have to be inspected by the Environment Agency and we have to have a method of catching the oil, grease and dirty water so it doesn’t go into the main drainage system.
“My members are already under threat because of falling profits they make on selling fuel and now struggling because their car wash businesses, which were a good earner, are being decimated.
“We accept that this would be a difficult policy to sell to voters, but it should be examined.”
The organisation additionally called for small scale unregulated ‘pop up’ car washes to be banned due to their lax environmental safety procedures.
A number of German cities, such as Dresden, have prohibited street car washing to prevent detritus from entering the local sewerage system. The activity has also been banned on Sundays in a number of other areas for religious reasons.
The idea of banning drivers from washing their own cars has been widely condemned by motorists groups, with AA president Edmund King commenting to The Daily Telegraph that, “It is a ritual and a fundamental right up there with the Magna Carta.
“With record fuel prices and chorus of complaints at the fuel price differences between towns, it doesn’t exactly win the hearts and minds of drivers when the petrol retailers tell them they can’t wash their cars in the street.”
I smell shite 😯