Lorry ban: court threat
Page 5
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• Transport Secretary Nicholas Ridley may, once again, be taken to court over the London lorry ban.
He is threatened with court action by two different organisations. The London Borough of Richmond has written to Ridley questioning the Department of Transport's right to erect road signs overruling the GLC lorry ban on routes reclassified as trunk roads on April 1.
Eight London boroughs (Camden, Lewisham, Lambeth, Greenwich, Islington, Hackney, Haringey, and Southwark), acting through the London Strategic Policy Unit, are planning to go one stage further and question the Department's right to reclassify the roads as trunk roads.
So far, the two disputes have consisted of a series of written communications between the Department of Transport and the London boroughs.
Now, the London Strategic Policy Unit is considering whether to take Nicholas Ridley to court on both points: to prevent the erection of signs over-ruling the GLC lorry ban, and to establish whether the DTp was acting legally when it altered the classification of 104km (65 miles) of major routes to trunk roads on April 1.
The LSPU says it is likely to apply for leave to take Ridley to court. But the DTp says that the dispute between it and the London boroughs arises from different interpretations of the GLC's Road Traffic Management Order 1985.
He says that the Department will eventually erect notices on each of the newly trunked roads, exempting the routes from the lorry ban, and there are also plans to remove the old GLC notices from these routes.
He does not expect any court action to take place until after the London Residuary Body reviews the lorry ban in June.