Ridley blasts Europe
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TRANSPORT SECRETARY Nicholas Ridley strongly attacked the EEC on three points in a speech delivered in Glasgow this week.
He blamed the recent French blockade on EEC policy, said that drivers' hours had to be more flexible, and that Britain's permit allocation was totally unacceptable.
Describing the French blockades which cost British operators many thousands of pounds, Mr Ridley said: "It was but an example — a bad example — of a problem we have been fighting to remove ever since we joined the community. It is a problem which makes nonsense of the free movement of goods."
He said that the British Government had continually warned the EEC that such a dispute was likely.
Mr Ridley quantified the problem saying that internal EEC barriers were costing industry £7bn a year. Frontier administration costs added six per cent to the cost of the goods carried before tax.
He went on to say that last year's arrangement to save £200m by speeding up frontier administration did not go far enough.
Turning to community driving rules Mr Ridley attacked the requirement for drivers to spend a night out when only half an hour from home they had run out of hours. He argued that there had to be flexibility and a change in the rules to meet the needs of industry without impairing road safety.
His final assault was on permit quotas and the slow progress being made to increase the UK allocation.