'Move Fleet St .
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THE NEWSPAPER industry should move from Fleet Street to the River Thames, inquiry chairman Derek Wood suggested to Ronald Adkins, managing director of Reed Transport Ltd.
If newsprint could only be transported on small and inadequate lorries, then the newspaper industry might have to consider moving to a place where the ban would not affect it so much, he suggested.
But Mr Adkins explained that an eight-tonne limit would increase the number of deliveries of newsprint from 25 to 100 per day, making Fleet Street even more congested.
Costs would rise by 105 per cent for an eight-tonne limit, whi.e a 16 and 24-tonne-gvw limit would increase freight costs by 50 and 25 per cent respectively.
Reed Transport also collects waste paper as a return load, from 20 points in Greater London, and transports it by road to one of its two paper mills at Aylesford and Thatcham.
Only 32-tonne-gvw lorries are used for this work. Switching to rail would be too expensive, as the trips would have to be single journeys only, he pointed out.
A night-time and weekend ban would have serious effects on the company as newsprint is needed then.
"Exceptions should be permitted for entry into key areas by large vehicles where the cost and practical effect of alternative small vehicles be come unrealistic or unkceptable," Mr Adkins said.
"Lorry bans would have a devastating effect on all aspects of employment within central London," he concluded. Businesses would move outside of a ban zone and people would need to move with the employment.