Edinburgh Cuts Limo Fleet But Keeps Plates

The Lord Provost of Edinburgh, George Grubb, has gained approval from the green lobby after downsizing his fleet of civic limousines. He now has just two ceremonial cars and they are both eco-friendly BMW 730d SE saloons.

Happily, however, His Lordship has cleverly managed to hang on to his prized S 0 number plate. Zero registrations are extremely rare and S 0 was created especially in 1903 after the then incumbent dignitory apparently missed out on Scotland's very first registration, S 1.

The sale of S 1 for £400,000 at auction last year prompted calls for the council to sell both their S 0 plate and the possibly even more desirable G 0 version, either of which would be sure to generate considerable and much-needed revenue for the city's coffers.

Although mathematicians would consider zero to be a number in its own right, most numeric systems tend to ignore it and start at '1'. Consequently, there have only ever been seven exceptions to the rule governing number plates and all of these were specially granted to mayoral vehicles. LM 0 was given to the Lord Mayor of London, but the remaining six, G 0, S 0, V 0, RG 0, HS 0 and VS 0 were, for some reason, distributed only amongst various Scottish local authorities.

Welcoming the news of Edinburgh's slimmed-down fleet of vehicles, Juliet Swann from Friends of the Earth said, "We hope that as well as giving up a vehicle and greening his fleet, George Grubb will also try and significantly reduce the number of journeys he takes in his remaining cars". Ms Swann also wryly noted that, "being eligible for a free bus pass, the Lord Provost could save the city money as well as carbon if he took the bus".

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