From the archives of Bob Montgomery, motoring historian
THE ORIGINS OF NUMBER PLATES: It's well known that the Locomotives and Highways Act of 1896 raised speed limits in Britain and Ireland from 4 mph in rural areas to 14 mph and did away with the man walking with a red flag 20 yards ahead of any powered vehicle. At the same time lights and horns became a requirement under this law.
Less well-known is that the Act introduced vehicle registration for the first time. It didn't apply to cars, but "all heavy locomotives" had to be licensed and in many cases registered with local councils.
Thus, in the lesser details of the 1896 Act was the first step to the registration of all vehicles and the carrying of index marks or number plates.
The 1896 Act was a huge step forward for motorists, but as cars multiplied over the next few years it became clear that the Act was far from adequate. This lead to that great champion of motoring, the Hon John Scott-Montagu, father of the current Lord Montagu, bringing in the 1903 Motor Car Act.
After a difficult passage and some twelve months of haggling this Act became law on August 12th 1903 and its provisions were introduced on December 31st 1903 - but not before Scott- Montagu had to introduce legislation at short notice to facilitate the Gordon Bennett Race in Ireland in July 1903.
The 1903 Motor Car Act saw many changes for motorists, chief among them a new 20mph speed limit which replaced the 12mph limit which had prevailed throughout Britain. (Originally this limit had been 14mph but was reduced to 12mph by local councils in Britain but not in Ireland where it remained 14 mph until the 1903 Act). Local authorities who felt this speed too high could apply to the Local Government Board to restrict it further on specific roads.
Scott-Montagu had originally sought the abolition of all out-of-town limits and a 25mph limit in built-up areas, so the Act represented a compromise for the motoring lobby. A motoring visionary who foresaw the need for motorways, Scott-Montagu had also wanted to introduce driving tests but this was deemed impractical at the time.
Drivers now had to be licensed and the minimum age for driving was 17 years, but 14-year-olds were allowed to ride motorcycles. For the first time penalties were introduced for "reckless driving", speeding and failure to report accidents.
However, because no standard fines were introduced this aspect of the Act was a failure. At the end of 1905 it was reported that the average fine for "excessive speeding" in Dublin was £1.50 while it was £15 in Oakham! (The standard of witnesses was also somewhat suspect - a man testified at Exeter that a car was doing at 200mph, but the police put it at 25mph.).
The enduring contribution of the Act was the number plate - it required all vehicles to be registered with their local authority and to carry allocated "identification marks". For the privilege, motorists had to pay £1 and motorcyclists 5 shillings.
Index marks of one or two letters were allocated to each licensing authority starting with A for London, B for Lancashire and so on. Hampshire was allocated AA, while G, I, S, V and Z were allocated to Ireland and Scotland. Q and the confusing II were not allocated.
Number plates are now, of course, universal and come in may forms. In France plates carry the postal code of the area in which a vehicle is registered - for example, 75 for Paris.
Our current date-location system - with EU state identifier - was introduced in January 1987 while John Boland was Environment Minister.