Mayor Gallardón was speaking this week at the official handover of 41 Toyota Auris HSD models to Spanish food giant Grupo Leche Pascual. The firm is taking delivery of the vehicles as part of its commitment to sustainable transportation in Madrid.

Grupo Leche Pascual is also participating in the "Madrid Compensa plan", by which the almost 200 metric tons of carbon emitted by the 66 conventional vehicles on its delivery fleet will be offset by the planting of more than 1,200 trees to enrich the environment.

At the event, Mayor Gallardón called for 'a legislative framework that corresponds to the reality' in which public bodies have to operate. 'We've all been wrong at various times, which is not the fault of the decision-makers, we simply did not have sufficient technical knowledge to take the right decisions,' said the Mayor.

'The big cities in the European Union do not have a problem with pollutants, they have a problem with nitrogen dioxide (NO2), which, paradoxically, is mostly produced by the cars we have promoted in our own fleets, and recently via tax measures among our citizens,' he continued, after noting that 'pinning your faith on diesel is now seen as something completely perverse'.

To reverse these policies, Mayor Gallardón emphasised again the need to reform the registration tax regime, which promotes the sale of diesel vehicles, which are 'the main source of NO2 and particle emissions'.